There’s a lot of great advice out there for entrepreneurs, and it can be tough to know where to start. That’s why we’ve put together this compilation of observation quotes from some of the most successful businesspeople out there. From tips on how to stay focused, to words of wisdom on perseverance, these quotes will help set you on the right path.

1. I can envision observations and experiments that would disprove any evolutionary theory I know. — Stephen Jay Gould
2. You have to experience life, make observations, and ask questions. — Mos Def
3. People learn more from observation that they do from conversation. — Will Rogers
4. That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good. — Samuel Johnson
5. The Enlightenment taught that observation unrecorded was knowledge lost. — Stephen E. Ambrose
6. We do not need to attend classroom training programmes for everything. Observation opens the windows of knowledge around us — Sukant Ratnakar, Open the Windows
7. The cafe windows wrapped all the way around the observation floor, which gave us a beautiful panoramic view of the skeleton army that had come to kill us. — Rick Riordan
8. God has put enough into the world to make faith in Him a most reasonable thing. But He has left enough out to make it impossible to live by sheer reason or observation alone. — Ravi Zacharias
9. A heightened sense of the observation of nature is one of the chief delights that have come to me through trying to paint. — Winston Churchill
10. Poets, we know, are terribly sensitive people, and in my observation one of the things they are most sensitive about is money. — Robert Penn Warren
11. They (teenage boys)don’t really listen to speeches or talks. They absorb incrementally, through hours and hours of observation. — Rob Lowe
12. The customs are as formalised as an eighteenth–century minuet, and a child at the race’s knee learns the moves and twirls by osmosis and observation. — Maya Angelou
13. Science is beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. — Stephen Hawking
14. ‘this observation leads Rozin to a stunning conclusion: ”Disgust is the basic emotion of civilization.’ — Winifred Gallagher
15. That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good. — Samuel Johnson
16. There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation, and for some men it is quite as difficult to record an observation in brief and plain language. — William Osler
17. Observations indicate that the universe is expanding at an ever increasing rate. It will expand forever, getting emptier and darker. — Stephen Hawking
18. There are three types of men in the world. One type learns from books. One type learns from observations. And one type just has to urinate on the electric fence himself. — Will Rogers
19. From all our observations we may collect with certainty, that misery is the lot of man, but cannot discover in what particular condition it will find most alleviations. — Samuel Johnson
20. There are three types of men in the world. One type learns from books. One type learns from observations. And one type just has to urinate on the electric fence himself. — Will Rogers
21. Intuition is for thinking what observation is for perception. Intuition and observation are the sources of our knowledge. — Rudolf Steiner
22. We do not need to attend classroom training programmes for everything. Observation opens the windows of knowledge around us — Sukant Ratnakar, Open the Windows
23. Science is beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. — Stephen Hawking
24. There are three types of men in the world. One type learns from books. One type learns from observations. And one type just has to urinate on the electric fence himself. — Will Rogers
25. We fail in even the simplest of all scientific observations–nobody looks up anymore. — Neil Degrasse Tyson
26. I think the very word stalking implies that you’re not supposed to like it. Otherwise, it would be called ‘fluffy harmless observation time’. — Molly Harper
27. A journey of observation must leave as much as possible to chance. Random movement is the best plan for maximum observation — Tahir Shah, Sorcerer’s Apprentice
28. From all our observations we may collect with certainty, that misery is the lot of man, but cannot discover in what particular condition it will find most alleviations. — Samuel Johnson
29. I love Voltaire’s observation that ‘History never repeats itself; man always does. — Morgan Housel
30. Trust not my reading, nor my observations, Which with experimental seal do warrant The tenor of my book. — William Shakespeare
31. Our knowledge of dynamic processes is necessarily inferior to our ability to describe stationary conditions. — Oskar Morgenstern, On The Accuracy Of Economic Observations
32. You have to experience life, make observations, and ask questions. — Mos Def
33. Science progresses best when observations force us to alter our preconceptions. — Vera Rubin
34. You have to experience life, make observations, and ask questions. — Mos Def
35. People learn more from observation that they do from conversation. — Will Rogers
36. She ignored my observation. This generally happens with me. Show me a woman, I sometimes say, and I will show you someone who is going to ignore my observations. — P.G. Wodehouse
37. A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others. — William Faulkner
38. Intuition is for thinking what observation is for perception. Intuition and observation are the sources of our knowledge. — Rudolf Steiner
39. The Enlightenment taught that observation unrecorded was knowledge lost. — Stephen E. Ambrose
40. We will take almost any kind of criticism except the observation that we have no sense of humor. — Steve Allen
41. Poets, we know, are terribly sensitive people, and in my observation one of the things they are most sensitive about is money. — Robert Penn Warren
42. The person who can learn by observation can create his own culture. — Santosh Kalwar
43. Observations indicate that the universe is expanding at an ever increasing rate. It will expand forever, getting emptier and darker. — Stephen Hawking
44. Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations than in their particular observations. — Niccolo Machiavelli
45. Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts only in which all religions agree. — Thomas Jefferson
46. We create history by our observation, rather than history creating us. — Stephen Hawking
47. Women are always most observed when they seem themselves least to observe, or to lay out for observation. — Samuel Richardson
48. Only use the mind for practical ways in life. Use your deep inner body energy, observation and breath to glide through life. — Matthew Donnelly
49. Science progresses best when observations force us to alter our preconceptions. — Vera Rubin
50. A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others. — William Faulkner