Quotes about Observation

"What a shift!  In a radically different interpretation of our relationship to the world we live in, Wheeler states that it's impossible for us to simply watch the universe happen around us.  Experiments in quantum physics, in fact, do show that simply looking at something as tiny as an electron--just focusing our awareness upon what it's doing for even an instant of time--changes its properties while we're watching it.  The experiments suggest that the very observation is an act of creation, and that consciousness is doing the creating.  These findings seem to support Wheeler's propostion that we can no longer consider ourselves merely onlookers who have no effect on the world that we're observing.

To think of ourselves as participating in creation rather than simply passing through the universe during a brief period of a lifetime requires a new perception of what the cosmos is and how it works.  The groundwork for such a radical worldview was the basis for a series of books and papers by another Princeton physicist and colleague of Einstein, David Bohm.  Before his death in 1992, Bohm left us two pioneering theories that offer a very different--and in some ways, a nearly holistic--view of the universe and our role in it.

The first was an interpretation of quantum physics that set the stage for Bohm's meeting and subsequent friendship with Einstein.  It was this theory that opened the door to what Bohm called the "creative operation of underlying ... levels of reality."  In other words, he beileved that there are deeper or higher planes of creation that hold the template for what happens in our world.  It's from these subtler levels of reality that our physical world originates."

To acquire knowledge, one must study.To acquire wisdom one must observe.

I go to a pub and talk to another man. He is experienced deeply part of the time, and shallowly another part of the time, depending on the quality of my consciousness. If I am very conscious, meeting him can be an experience comparable to great music or even an earthquake; if I am in the usual shallow state, he barely "makes an impression." If I am practicing alertness and neurological self-criticism, I may observe that I am only experiencing him part of the time, and that part of the time I am not-tuning-in but drifting off to my favorite “Real” Universe and editing out at the ear-drum much of what he is saying. Often, the “Real” Universe hypnotizes me sufficiently that, while I “hear” what he says, I have no idea of the way he says it or what he means to convey.

Ever since learning I wasn’t the only unreal person in the world, I’d developed an annoying habit of studying people to determine their true ontological status. I studied people in class, the library, the cafeteria, my dorm, around campus, while running the Gargoyle Castle Loop. Now, under the influence of acid, I began to suspect everyone was unreal. That behind all the masks and makeup, the smiles and laughter, the quips and repartees, there was a good chance of finding absolutely nothing.

[Physicist Henry Stapp of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.]

            “How does the mid/brain cause one particular line of thought, or decision, to be sustained over another?  Stapp offers an intriguing speculation based on the Quantum Zeno Effect.  This refers to a prediction (since confirmed by experiments) that  the act of rapidly observing a quantum system forces that system to remain in its wavelike, indeterminate state, rather than to collapse into a particular, determined state.  As Stapp says,

            ‘Taken to the extreme, observing continuously whether an atom is in a certain state keeps it in that state forever.  For this reason, the Quantum Zeno Effect is also known as the watched pot effect.  The mere act of rapidly asking questions of a quantum system freezes it in a particular state, preventing it from evolving as it would if we weren’t peeking.  Simply observing a quantum system suppresses certain of its transitions to other states.’”

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

The torture of being the unseen object, and the constantly observed subject.

Sit in reverie, and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind.

Of course, a psychologist would find it more direct to study the inspired poet. He would make concrete studies of inspiration in individual geniuses. But for all that, would he experience the phenomena of inspiration? His human documentation gathered from inspired poets could hardly be related, except from the exterior, in an ideal of objective observations. Comparison of inspired poets would soon make us lose sight of inspiration.

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."

"To observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence."

Thinking is the talking of the soul to itself.

Honor thy error as hidden intention.

When I was a young man I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. I didn't want to be a failure, so I did ten times more work.

By means of microscopic observation and astronomical projection the lotus flower can become the foundation for an entire theory of the universe and an agent whereby we may perceive Truth.

You can observe a lot just by watching.

The late M. Venizelos observed that in all her wars England - he should have said Britain, of course - always wins one battle - the last. Eleutherios Venizelos, 1864-1936, Greek statesman.

Brutus, I do observe you now of late: I have not from your eyes that gentleness And show of love as I was wont to have: You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand Over your friend that loves you. Poor Brutus, with himself at war, Forgets the shows of love to other men.

For he is but a bastard to the time that doth not smack of observation.

The more you observe politics, the more you've got to admit that each party is worse than the other.

We hear a good deal about business confidence, which means confidence of business in itself, in its government, and in its capacity for expansion. But confidence is only another way of saying that people believe each other, keep their promises, pay their debts, and regard their duty to society. As long as business observes these rules, it will have the confidence of the community and it will be safe from all of the irresponsible attacks of its enemies.

If we represent knowledge as a tree, we know that things that are divided are yet connected. We know that to observe the divisions and ignore the connections is to destroy the tree.

Accuracy of observation is the equivalent of accuracy of thinking.

I suppose the pleasure of the country life lies really in the eternally renewed evidences of the determination to live. That is a truism when said, but anything but a truism when daily observed. Nothing shows up the difference between the thing said or read, so much as the daily experience of it.

Hope is a state of mind, not of the world . . . Either we have hope or we don't; it is a dimension of the soul, and it's not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, and orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons ... Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather and ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more propitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

What is true for you is what you have observed yourself.

Dear Sir, Your astonishment's odd: I am always about in the Quad. And that's why the tree Will continue to be, Since observed by Yours faithfully, God.

Life was not meant to be observed, it was meant to be stolen

Eight "Do Mores" 1. Do more than exist: Live. 2. Do more than touch: Feel. 3. Do more than hear: Listen. 4. Do more than listen: Understand. 5. Do more than look: Observe. 6. Do more than love: Serve. 7. Do more than think: Ponder. 8. Do more than Talk: Say something.

Speaking of automobiles, some wit has observed; many freeways have three lanes. There's a left lane, a right lane and the one you're trapped in when you go past your exit.