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.

The best observation quotes

1. Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former observation. — Samuel Johnson

2. The person who can learn by observation can create his own culture. — Santosh Kalwar

3. A short poem from my book:PerspectiveOf coursethere is a hellshe saidand it hasan observation deck — so I maystand and waveto all those kindsouls belowwho warned meI would go there.

4. People’s minds are changed through observation and not through argument. — Will Rogers

5. 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

6. Let observation with extensive view, Survey mankind from China to Peru; Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife, And watch the busy scenes of crowded life. — Samuel Johnson

7. I love Voltaire’s observation that ‘History never repeats itself; man always does. — Morgan Housel

8. Your primary tools, as an actor, are observation and imagination. You can pretty much get everything you need from that, and you do. It brings back that element of pretend. — Stephen Lang

9. Talents of the novelist: … observation of character, analysis of emotion, people’s feelings, personal relations. — Virginia Woolf

10. The telephone, which interrupts the most serious conversations and cuts short the most weighty observations, has a romance of its own. — Virginia Woolf

11. We create history by our observation, rather than history creating us. — Stephen Hawking

12. We do not need to attend classroom training programmes for everything. Observation opens the windows of knowledge around us — Sukant Ratnakar, Open the Windows

13. 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

14. I get quiet joy from the observation of anyone who does his job well. — William Feather

15. The language of mathematics, scientific observations, and our perceptivity together knit the window to reality. — Neeti Sinha, Physical Laws of the Mathematical Universe: Who Are We?

16. 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

17. How true is the observation that unrequited love turns to deepest hate. — Samuel Richardson

18. 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

19. It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

20. Trust not my reading, nor my observations, Which with experimental seal do warrant The tenor of my book. — William Shakespeare

21. I love making observations. That one is a classic example. — Stephen Colbert

22. If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk. — Robert Baden–Powell

23. 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

24. 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

25. The Enlightenment taught that observation unrecorded was knowledge lost. — Stephen E. Ambrose

26. Knowledge is the intellectual manipulation of carefully verified observations. — Sigmund Freud

27. Science is beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. — Stephen Hawking

28. 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

29. People’s minds are changed through observation and not through argument. — Will Rogers

30. 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

31. Science adjusts its views based on what’s observedFaith is the denial of observation so that belief can be preserved. — Tim Minchin

32. 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

33. Silence is more than observation — it informs from non–observation.

34. I can envision observations and experiments that would disprove any evolutionary theory I know. — Stephen Jay Gould

35. ‘safety” and ”fairness” are the preoccupation of the wounded. ”Being” and ”joy” are the unconscious realities of the free and living.’ — Mea McMahon, Observation on Christianity

36. I can envision observations and experiments that would disprove any evolutionary theory I know. — Stephen Jay Gould

37. Accuracy of observation is the equivalent of accuracy of thinking. — Wallace Stevens

38. 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

39. 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

40. 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

41. Trust not my reading, nor my observations, Which with experimental seal do warrant The tenor of my book. — William Shakespeare

42. 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

43. Let observation with extensive view, Survey mankind from China to Peru; Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife, And watch the busy scenes of crowded life. — Samuel Johnson

44. It has been my observation that parents kill more dreams than anybody. — Spike Lee

45. The Tweets that I have written that are most popular are the ones that are the kind of universal girly concerns and observations. — Mindy Kaling

46. 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

47. If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk. — Robert Baden–Powell

48. Now the identification of individual sounds by phonetic observation is an artificial way of proceeding. — Roman Jakobson

49. Let observation with extensive view, Survey mankind from China to Peru; Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife, And watch the busy scenes of crowded life. — Samuel Johnson

50. 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

Conclusion

We hope that these quotes about observation have inspired you to look at the world around you with a more curious and observant eye. As we’ve seen, observation is an important part of gaining wisdom, understanding the world, and gaining insight into the human condition. Take some time to look around you and enjoy the details that make up the world we live in!