#observation

The curious defiled past him, after squeezing the Presidential fingers into the room, and settled either on the sofa or chairs or remained standing for protracted observations. ↗

— Henry Villard

#chairs #curious #either #fingers #him

The whole concatenation of wild and artificial things, the natural ecosystem as modified by people over the centuries, the build environment layered over layers, the eerie mix of sounds and smells and glimpses neither natural nor crafted- all of it is free for the taking, for the taking in. Take it, take it in, take in more every weekend, every day, and quickly it becomes the theater that intrigues, relaxes, fascinates, seduces, and above all expands any mind focused on it. Outside lies utterly ordinary space open to any casual explorer willing to find the extraordinary. Outside lies unprogrammed awareness that at times becomes directed serendipity. Outside lies magic. ↗

— John Stilgoe

#attention #focus #inspiration #magic #observation

Meditation is one of the most serious things; you do it all day, in the office, with the family, when you say to somebody "I love you", when you are considering your children, when you educate them to become soldiers, to kill, to be nationalized, worshipping the flag, educating them to enter into this trap of the modern world; watching all that, realizing your part in it, all that is part of meditation. And when you so meditate you will find in it an extraordinary beauty; you will act rightly at every moment; and if you do not act rightly at a given moment it does not matter, you will pick it up again - you will not waste time in regret. Meditation is part of life, not something different from life. ↗

— Jiddu Krishnamurti

#life #love #meditation #observation #realization

I look at everything. God gave me eyes and I look at women and men and subway excavations and moving pictures and the little flowers of the field. I casually inspect the universe. ↗

— Irwin Shaw

#flowers #god #men #movies #observation

One of the hallmarks of our politics now is that we tend to elect those who can campaign over those who can lead; ↗

— Ethan Canin

#elections

The reports of the eclipse parties not only described the scientific observations in great detail, but also the travels and experiences, and were sometimes marked by a piquancy not common in official documents. ↗

— Simon Newcomb

#common #described #detail #documents #eclipse

The result was that, if it happened to clear off after a cloudy evening, I frequently arose from my bed at any hour of the night or morning and walked two miles to the observatory to make some observation included in the programme. ↗

— Simon Newcomb

#any #arose #bed #clear #cloudy

For the perfect flâneur, for the passionate spectator, it is an immense joy to set up house in the heart of the multitude, amid the ebb and flow of movement, in the midst of the fugitive and the infinite. ↗

— Charles Baudelaire

#city #crowds #looking #observation #people-watching

I will throw all my best efforts into it, my thoughts and political observations, but ultimately I want to create a narrative that keeps you turning the pages and leaves you with a sense that this thing has a reason for being there. ↗

— Frank Miller

#being there #best #create #efforts #i

The Dark Ages are alive and secretly thriving like a herpes infection among us. ↗

— Juliette Fay

#observations-on-life #unexpected-humor #unexpected-life #wry #age