Quotes about notice
A collection of quotes on the topic of notice, people, doing, likeness.
Quotes about notice
Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer
Earth Song
HIStory: Past, Present & Future, Book I (1995)
“I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
Anderson-Reagan Presidential Debate (21 September 1980) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29407 <br class="br">1980s <br class="br">Context: With regard to the freedom of the individual for choice with regard to abortion, there's one individual who's not being considered at all. That's the one who is being aborted. And I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born.
“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.”
Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) Polish Marxist theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary
As is often the case, this quote appears to be something Luxemburg could have said or written, but searches for a source have been unsuccessful. While Luxemburg often used metaphors of breaking or shattering chains, this, apparently, is not one of them. See: https://librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com/2013/07/06/reference-desk-unanswered-questions/
“One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.”
Marie Curie (1867–1934) French-Polish physicist and chemist
Letter to her brother (1894)
“But I've just noticed that my mind is asleep.”
Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) French Decadent and Symbolist poet
Source: Une Saison en Enfer / Vers Nouveaux
“I want to be alone and I want people to notice me — both at the same time”
Thom Yorke (1968) English musician, philanthropist and singer-songwriter
“True progress quietly and persistently moves along without notice.”
Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) Catholic saint and founder of the Franciscan Order
“When I sing, trouble can sit right on my shoulder and I don't even notice.”
Sarah Vaughan (1924–1990) American jazz singer
Interview, The New York Times, 1988
1977 (from the poem, Douse the Flames)
Alexis De Tocqueville (1805–1859) French political thinker and historian
12 September 1848, "Discours prononcé à l'assemblée constituante le 12 Septembre 1848 sur la question du droit au travail", Oeuvres complètes, vol. IX, p. 546 https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Tocqueville_-_%C5%92uvres_compl%C3%A8tes,_%C3%A9dition_1866,_volume_9.djvu/564; Translation (from Hayek, The Road to Serfdom): <br class="br">Original text:<br>La démocratie étend la sphère de l'indépendance individuelle, le socialisme la resserre. La démocratie donne toute sa valeur possible à chaque homme, le socialisme fait de chaque homme un agent, un instrument, un chiffre. La démocratie et le socialisme ne se tiennent que par un mot, l'égalité; mais remarquez la différence : la démocratie veut l'égalité dans la liberté, et le socialisme veut l'égalité dans la gêne et dans la servitude. <br class="br">1840s
Stephen Hawking book Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays
Source: Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays (1993), pp. 133–135.
Context: The ultimate objective test of free will would seem to be: Can one predict the behavior of the organism? If one can, then it clearly doesn't have free will but is predetermined. On the other hand, if one cannot predict the behavior, one could take that as an operational definition that the organism has free will … The real reason why we cannot predict human behavior is that it is just too difficult. We already know the basic physical laws that govern the activity of the brain, and they are comparatively simple. But it is just too hard to solve the equations when there are more than a few particles involved … So although we know the fundamental equations that govern the brain, we are quite unable to use them to predict human behavior. This situation arises in science whenever we deal with the macroscopic system, because the number of particles is always too large for there to be any chance of solving the fundamental equations. What we do instead is use effective theories. These are approximations in which the very large number of particles are replaced by a few quantities. An example is fluid mechanics … I want to suggest that the concept of free will and moral responsibility for our actions are really an effective theory in the sense of fluid mechanics. It may be that everything we do is determined by some grand unified theory. If that theory has determined that we shall die by hanging, then we shall not drown. But you would have to be awfully sure that you were destined for the gallows to put to sea in a small boat during a storm. I have noticed that even people who claim everything is predetermined and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road. … One cannot base one's conduct on the idea that everything is determined, because one does not know what has been determined. Instead, one has to adopt the effective theory that one has free will and that one is responsible for one's actions. This theory is not very good at predicting human behavior, but we adopt it because there is no chance of solving the equations arising from the fundamental laws. There is also a Darwinian reason that we believe in free will: A society in which the individual feels responsible for his or her actions is more likely to work together and survive to spread its values.
“You do good work for a long-enough time, I believed, and you'd get noticed.”
Yanni (1954) Greek pianist, keyboardist, composer, and music producer
Yanni in Words. Miramax Books. Co-author David Rensin
Sarada Devi (1853–1920) Hindu religious figure, spiritual consort of Ramakrishna
[Swami Nikhilananda, Holy Mother, 204]
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer
Variant translation: A loss of courage may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days...
Harvard University address (1978)
Justin Bieber (1994) Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor
Billboard Interview, January 28, 2013, as quoted in Elite Daily http://elitedaily.com/elite/2013/justin-bieber-feels-entitled-winning-grammy/, 'Justin Bieber Feels That He Is Entitled To Winning A Grammy'.
Günther von Kluge (1882–1944) German general
July 1944. Quoted in "Why the Allies Won" - Page 170 - by R. J. Overy - History - 1995
Frederick II of Prussia (1712–1786) king of Prussia
1777; quoted by Bert L. Vallée, Alcohol in the Western World, Scientific American, Vol. 278, No. 6 (June), 1998, pp. 80-85
Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation
Source: The Freedom of a Christian (1520), p. 80
John Green book The Fault in Our Stars
A desert blessing, an ocean curse. What else? She is so beautiful. You don’t get tired of looking at her. You never worry if she is smarter than you: You know she is. She is funny without ever being mean. I love her. I am so lucky to love her, Van Houten. You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she likes hers."
Augustus "Gus" Waters, p. 310-313
The Fault in Our Stars (2012)
Ransom Riggs book Miss Peregrine's Home of Peculiar Children
Source: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2011), Chapter 11, Page 351
Linda Smith (1958–2006) comedian
Sunday Times, 11 November 2007
“We're such self-centered crap we don't even notice Hell itself rising up against us.”
Alex Jones (1974) American radio host, author, conspiracy theorist and filmmaker
As heard in "Jones Iver - Alex Jones Rants as an Indie Folk Song" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWd6XgBVIcg by Nick Lutsko, released on the Super Deluxe YouTube channel (14 July 2017)
Nakayama Miki (1798–1887) Founder of Tenrikyo
Anecdotes of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo, from Anecdote 158, "Monthly Period is the Flower," p. 128.
Anecdotes of Oyasama
“Time moves and yet we do not notice it.”
Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio
Canto IV, line 9 (tr. Mandelbaum).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party
Source: Disputed, Hitler: Memoirs of a Confidant (1978), pp.16-17
George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist
Original preface to Animal Farm; as published in George Orwell: Some Materials for a Bibliography (1953) by Ian R. Willison
Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist
Quotes 1990s, 1990-1994, Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent, 1992
Context: There is a noticeable general difference between the sciences and mathematics on the one hand, and the humanities and social sciences on the other. It's a first approximation, but one that is real. In the former, the factors of integrity tend to dominate more over the factors of ideology. It's not that scientists are more honest people. It's just that nature is a harsh taskmaster. You can lie or distort the story of the French Revolution as long as you like, and nothing will happen. Propose a false theory in chemistry, and it'll be refuted tomorrow.
Jane Goodall (1934) British primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist
Frans de Waal, in a NOVA interview, " The Bonobo in All of Us" PBS (1 January 2007) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/bonobo-all-us.html; quotes from this interview were for some time misplaced on this page, which probably generated similar misattributions elsewhere, and the misplacement was not discovered until after this quotation had been selected for Quote of the Day, as a quote of Goodall. Corrections were subsequently made here, during the day the quote was posted as QOTD. <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Context: I think if we study the primates, we notice that a lot of these things that we value in ourselves, such as human morality, have a connection with primate behavior. This completely changes the perspective, if you start thinking that actually we tap into our biological resources to become moral beings. That gives a completely different view of ourselves than this nasty selfish-gene type view that has been promoted for the last 25 years.
Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher
Rainer Maria Rilke book Letters to a Young Poet
Letter Four (16 July 1903)
Variant: Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. (Translation by Stephen Mitchell)
Letters to a Young Poet (1934)
Context: Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.
“Books are the air I breathe, so I don't notice the seasons.”
Emma Donoghue (1969) Irish novelist, playwright, short-story writer and historian
Byron Katie (1942) American spiritual writer
Source: Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life
“I myself have noticed my growing resemblance to a daffodil.”
Tamora Pierce (1954) American writer of fantasy novels for children
“The only way you get Americans to notice anything is to tax them or draft them or kill them.”
John Irving book A Prayer for Owen Meany
Source: A Prayer for Owen Meany
“Have you noticed how many people who walk in the shade curse the Sun?”
Idries Shah book Reflections
Source: Reflections
“Sometimes I come crashing down inside myself
without anyone noticing.”
Yehuda Amichai (1924–2000) Israeli poet
“Most of us have the good or bad fortune of seeing our lives fall apart so slowly we barely notice.”
Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind
Source: The Shadow of the Wind
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer
Source: The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke
“I notice that Autumn is more the season of the soul than of nature.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)
Source: A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety
Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist
Source: Propaganda and the Public Mind: Conversations with Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian
Friedrich Nietzsche book Human, All Too Human
Section IX, "Man Alone with Himself" / aphorism 627
Human, All Too Human (1878), Helen Zimmern translation
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Source: Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 3 (2015), p. 269
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2015, Remarks at Panama Civil Society Forum (April 2015)
George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States
1770s, Letter to Phyllis Wheatley (1776)
Jean Anouilh (1910–1987) French playwright
Jean Anouilh as cited in: Stuart Allan (2010) News Culture. p. 1
José Saramago (1922–2010) Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature
ÉPOCA Interview (in Portuguese) http://revistaepoca.globo.com/Epoca/0,6993,EPT1061569-1666-2,00.html, São Paulo, 2005.
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Source: Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 3 (2015), pp. 57–58
Sita Ram Goel (1921–2003) Indian activist
Jesus Christ, Artifice for Aggression, 1994
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
Boisgeloup, winter 1934
As quoted in Futurism, ed. Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 313
Quotes, 1930's
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer
"Knowing What's Nice", an essay from In These Times (2003)
Various interviews
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Statements (c. December 1907), in Mark Twain In Eruption : Hitherto Unpublished Pages About Men And Events (1940) edited by Bernard Augustine De Voto
