The Watcher Quotes

What about animals slaughtered for our consumption? who among us would be able to continue eating pork chops after visiting a factory farm in which pigs are half-blind and cannot even properly walk, but are just fattened to be killed? And what about, say, torture and suffering of millions we know about, but choose to ignore? Imagine the effect of having to watch a snuff movie portraying what goes on thousands of times a day around the world: brutal acts of torture, the picking out of eyes, the crushing of testicles -the list cannot bear recounting. Would the watcher be able to continue going on as usual? Yes, but only if he or she were able somehow to forget -in an act which suspended symbolic efficiency -what had been witnessed. This forgetting entails a gesture of what is called fetishist disavowal: "I know it, but I don't want to know that I know, so I don't know." I know it, but I refuse to fully assume the consequences of this knowledge, so that I can continue acting as if I don't know it. ~ Slavoj Zizek

I sat there and forgot and forgot, until what remained was the river that went by and I who watched ... Eventually the watcher joined the river, and there was only one of us. I believe it was the river.
Even the anatomy of a river was laid bare. Not far downstream was a dry channel where the river had run once, and part of the way to come to know a thing is through its death. But years ago I had known the river when it flowed through this now dry channel, so I could enliven its stony remains with the waters of memory. ~ Norman Maclean

In this image (watching sensual murder through a peephole) Lorrain embodies the criminal delight of decadent art. The watcher who records the crimes (both the artist and consumer of art) is constructed as marginal, powerless to act, and so exculpated from action, passive subject of a complex pleasure, condemning and yet enjoying suffering imposed on others, and condemning himself for his own enjoyment. In this masochistic celebration of disempowerment, the sharpest pleasure recorded is that of the death of some important part of humanity. The dignity of human life is the ultimate victim of Lorrain's art, thrown away on a welter of delighted self-disgust. ~ Jennifer Birkett

El duende is literally the goblin wind or force behind a person's actions and creative life, including the way they walk, the sound of their voice, even the way they lift their little finger. It is a term used in flamenco dance, and is also used to describe the ability to "think" in poetic images. Among Latina curanderas who recollect story, it is understood as the ability to be filled with spirit that is more than one's own spirit. Whether one is the artist or whether one is the watcher, listener, or reader, when el duende is present, one sees it, hears it, reads it, feels it underneath the dance, the music, the words, the art; one knows it is there. When el duende is not present, one knows that too. ~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes

The discretion of the watcher versus the privacy of the watched was just another arms race; this one, I could see, would run and run. ~ Ken MacLeod

I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. ~ George R R Martin

The sand looked so beautiful then, so many little individual grains in the light of the night, giving the watcher the childhood feeling of infinite things finally understood, the humiliating feeling of the watcher's nothingness. ~ Ayi Kwei Armah

I'd never had a host that was capable of superstition. It was an interesting sensation. Like knowing you were being watched without being able to find the watcher. It raised goose bumps on the nape of my neck. ~ Stephenie Meyer

Sometimes when I hear commentating, it's sickening. People who never played the game, people who never played in the league have an opinion, and that's all it is. You are here to educate the watcher or the viewer. Sometimes it comes off as personal. ~ Kevin Garnett

The power of prayer is still the greatest ever known in this endless eternal universe.-The Watcher in The Avengers #14 ~ Stan Lee

Walk, but make walking a meditation; walk knowingly Breathe, but let your breathing become a constant meditation; breathe knowingly. The breath going in: watch it. The breath going out: watch it. Eat, but eat with full awareness. Take a bite, chew it, but go on watching. Let the watcher be there in every moment, whatsoever you are doing. ~ Rajneesh

The house of fiction has in short not one window, but a million, ... but they are, singly, as nothing without the posted presence of the watcher. ~ Henry James

As you watch your mind, you discover your self as the watcher. When you stand motionless, only watching, you discover your self as the light behind the watcher. The source of light is dark, unknown is the source of knowledge. That source alone is. Go back to that source and abide there.
"I Am That" - pg 188 ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

If death becomes cheap it is the watcher, not the dying, who is poisoned. ~ Enid Bagnold

The best player of a game is the watcher - ask him. ~ Idries Shah

Of two sisters one is always the watcher, one the dancer. ~ Louise Gluck

Oh, the jobs people work at! Out west near Hawtch-Hawtch there's a Hawtch-Hawtcher bee watcher, his job is to watch. Is to keep both his eyes on the lazy town bee, a bee that is watched will work harder you see. So he watched and he watched, but in spite of his watch that bee didn't work any harder not mawtch. So then somebody said "Our old bee-watching man just isn't bee watching as hard as he can, he ought to be watched by another Hawtch-Hawtcher! The thing that we need is a bee-watcher-watcher!". Well, the bee-watcher-watcher watched the bee-watcher. He didn't watch well so another Hawtch-Hawtcher had to come in as a watch-watcher-watcher! And now all the Hawtchers who live in Hawtch-Hawtch are watching on watch watcher watchering watch, watch watching the watcher who's watching that bee. You're not a Hawtch-Watcher you're lucky you see! ~ Dr. Seuss

An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. "Can they be brought together?" This is a practical question. We must get down to it. "I despise intelligence" really means: "I cannot bear my doubts. ~ Albert Camus

Is there some general guideline by which we might measure our daily life, minute to minute, to see if we are on track? We can examine who is the doer of our actions. If we find ourselves doing whatever is needed without drama or burden, then the Self is the doer, and no karma or suffering will accrue. Drama and burden is our thumbnail litmus test of right living. Be the watcher of your mind as you go through the day and see why you do the things you do, and who is the doer of these actions. ~ Dennis Hill

Anger will come and go and the watcher abides. Sadness comes and passes by and the witness remains ~ Rajneesh

The watcher on the walls. The sword in the darkness. ~ George R R Martin

Henry Ward Beecher, so the story goes, was once asked by a young preacher how he could keep his congregation wide awake and attentive during his sermons. Beecher replied that he always had a man watch for sleepers, with instructions, as soon as he saw anyone start nodding or dozing, to hasten to the pulpit and wake up the preacher. Aren't you and I usually less sensible? Would we not be inclined to have the watcher wake up not ourselves but the fellows caught sleeping? In other words, aren't we disposed always to blame others? ~ B.C. Forbes

Eat, taste the food, and still remember that you are the watcher. ~ Rajneesh

For the observant, cultures matter!
For the watcher, they are only humans! ~ Noha Alaa El-Din

The Watcher. The Watcher of what? Of teenage girls forced to spend their holiday break filming cable TV specials? ~ Mara Purnhagen

Shepherds buried the sun in the naked forest.
With a net of hair
A fisherman hauled the moon from the icy pond.

The pale man dwells
In a blue crystal, his cheek at rest against his stars,
Or he bows his head in crimson sleep.

But the black flight of birds always touches
The watcher, the holiness of blue flowers;
The nearby silence thinks forgotten things, extinguished angels.

Again the brow turns night in moonlit stone;
A radiant youth,
The sister appears in autumn and black putrefaction. ~ Georg Trakl

If I'm to die a mortal, why shouldn't the same fate be given to all, no matter how long they've lived or how important they think they are? All things must eventually come to an end. ~ Morgan Rhodes

Be present as the watcher of your mind - of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react. ~ Eckhart Tolle

My name is Kane," he said finally, "and I am the youngest member ever to be inducted into the secret organization known as the Watchers. This," he gestured to the hall around them, "is what we call the Commuter Station. It is the second basement of the Watcher Castle." "Watchers?" said Lily. "What are you watching for?" Kane's mouth stretched into a bitter, tight-lipped smile and his eyes narrowed in Peter's direction. "Him. ~ C.A. Gray

It's the admirer and the watcher who provoke us to all the inanities we commit. ~ Seneca The Younger

As the watcher of the screen, you are perfect. The movie that is playing on the screen might be horrendous, but you are not the movie. You are what is watching the movie. ~ Ken Keyes Jr.

Love for a child cannot be free; from the first signs of movement in the womb, a devotion springs up as powerful as it is mindless, irresistible as the process of birth itself. But powerful as it is, it is a love always of control; one is in charge, the protector, the watcher, the guardian - there is great passion in it, to be sure, but never abandon. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Witness the witness itself - and ... the ultimate ecstasy is created. Start watching your thoughts but don't stop there ... One more thing has to be done, one more step: now watch the watcher ... Nothing else is left, only you are. By watching the mind, the mind disappears. By watching the witness, the witness expands and becomes universal. ~ Rajneesh

The desert landscape is always at its best in the half-light of dawn or dusk. The sense of distance lacks: a ridge nearby can be a far-off mountain range, each small detail can take on the importance of a major variant on the countryside's repetitious theme. The coming of day promises a change; it is only when the day had fully arrived that the watcher suspects it is the same day returned once again
the same day he has been living for a long time, over and over, still blindingly bright and untarnished by time. ~ Paul Bowles

My name is Matthew Swift. I'm a sorcerer, the only one in the city who survived Robert Bakker's purge. I was killed by my teacher's shadow and my body dissolved into telephone static and all they had left to bury was a bit of blood. Then we came back, and I am we and we are me, and we are the blue electric angels, creatures of the phones and the wires, the gods made from the surplus life you miserable excuse for mortals pour into all things electric. I am the Midnight Mayor, the protector of the city, the guardian of the night, the keeper of the gates, the watcher on the walls. We turned back the death of cities, we were there when Lady Neon died, we drove the creature called Blackout into the shadows at the end of the alleys, we are light, we are life, we are fire and, would you believe it, the word that best describes our condition right now is cranky.
Would you like to see what happens when you make us mad? ~ Kate Griffin

You become more conscious, a witness, a watcher of all that goes on inside you. The watcher becomes immediately free from identification. Because he can see the emotions, it is an absolute certainty that "I am not the emotions." He can see the thoughts; the simple conclusion is "I am not my thought process. ~ Osho

It was as if the entire day, the entire vacation even, were leading up to a single moment. he felt certain then that stan lee was in some direct communication with the universe - in a way, say, that the watcher, the most mysterious marvel character, was content like some gnostic entity merely to know of machinations of creation - and that through lee's spiritually advanced vision, paul's own destiny was entrapped in the monthly serializations of these kitschy superheroes. he seemed both influenced and influencer in the world of marvel. ~ Rick Moody

Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come. ~ George R R Martin

And then comes unhappiness, and one does not become unhappy either. One says, 'A black cloud passing. I am the witness, the watcher.' ~ Rajneesh

Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the same horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly. ~ Zora Neale Hurston

Once you become aware of your own body and its movements, you will be surprised that you are not your body. This is something of a basic principle, that if you can watch something then you are not it. You are the watcher, not the watched. You are the observer, not the observed. How can you be both? ~ Rajneesh

Feuds are forgiven, if not forgotten, in the hour of death

("The Watcher O' The Dead") ~ John Guinan

There is no man but carries in his breast the makings of a story, which, though never told, comes more home to him, than any the mind of another man can find and fashion in words

("The Watcher O' The Dead") ~ John Guinan

Dialogue in fiction should be reserved for the culminating moments and regarded as the spray into which the great wave of narrative breaks in curving toward the watcher on the shore. ~ Edith Wharton

close your eyes. Continue offering these good wishes while visualizing both the Wild Child and the Dictator until you genuinely mean it, until you can feel compassion toward both sides of yourself. When you get there, consider the following question. Who are you? The only reason you can "see" and offer kindness to both Dictator and the Wild Child is that you're not either one of them. You've moved into a third realm of consciousness, which resides, literally, in a different part of your brain. Call it the Watcher. ~ Martha N. Beck

Because of watching your breath and thoughts you have come to know now that you are neither thoughts nor your breath, you are the watcher, the witness. This is awareness. This is what I call meditation. Once you have known this awareness you are unidentified with your body, with your mind. Now you experience a vastness inside you, in one sense utterly empty and in another sense overflowingly full. Because of its emptiness you will remain calm and quiet. And because of its overflowing fullness you will be creative. ~ Rajneesh

I'm a big 'American Idol' watcher, and sometimes I like to watch 'America's Got Talent.' Those are big, corny admissions, but sometimes it's so fun to see those kids really sing their hearts out. ~ Katey Sagal

I've always been a people-watcher, and as an actor, later, I just mined all those little details. ~ Sissy Spacek

All joking aside, I'm a television watcher and I get frustrated with shows sometimes when they set up puzzles and then they don't give answers. It's just more questions and more questions. ~ Sarah Michelle Gellar

Lucy Stone wasn't usually a clock watcher. Time didn't pass slowly for her; it galloped ahead of her. ~ Leslie Meier

I am an old school sort of syndicated cartoon watcher. I'm a big fan of Voltron, too. ~ Seamus Dever

Son, if you were any farther from fine you'd be in Nebraska. ~ Deborah Blake

I always start from scratch with a character - they're never based on anyone else. You get ideas of what people look like, and I'm a great people watcher. You can draw inspiration from people. ~ Amanda Burton

But as a kid, I loved 'Monty Python.' My Dad was a devout watcher. We used to watch it when we ate dinner! ~ Wes Bentley

I always saw myself as more of a watcher, although I suppose my siblings might have a different viewpoint on it. ~ Amy Adams

When asked if he enjoys being famous: Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. I've always been a people watcher. I like to go to malls and just sit, and I can't do that very easily anymore. ~ Drew Carey

I am a people watcher and I have a very good memory. ~ Brian Jacques

A big reason why I'm not a big TV watcher is that in my formative years as a viewer, there wasn't that much great television on, or at least, television that appealed to me. ~ Jack Falahee

I have watched 'Project Runway,' but I'm not a devout watcher of it. But I think it's a great show, what I've seen of it, and I think Tim Gunn is a very positive, amazing guy. ~ Colleen Atwood

Life is like a river. Don't swim just float. Be a watcher. everything change except watcher. ~ AdOrAbLe MiNd

When angel meets Watcher, they're like two feral cats meeting each other in an alley. They raise their feathers, making their wings look spiky and larger than before. ~ Susan Ee

Sam could feel his jaw drop open, but it took him a moment to gather himself together enough to shut it. He blinked at Jazz. "Did that cat just talk, or am I losing my mind?"
Koshka laughed, a bizarre sound coming from something with whiskers and ear tufts. "So you believe in witches but not to talking cats? You have a very limited worldview, Human. You might want to work on that. ~ Deborah Blake

Only one thing is harassing you: your own idea of achieving things as quickly as possible. But meditation is not to be achieved; it is already there. It has only to be discovered. And discovery needs only one thing: a silent watcher. ~ Osho

I might not say much but I'm a watcher
and a thinker. ~ Tina J. Richardson

I was an avid anime watcher until I was about 10, when I moved to manga. I think I am influenced by Osamu Tezuka's and Walt Disney's works which I watched during that time, such as Tetsuwan Atom and 101 Dalmatians. ~ Akira Toriyama

I've been recording forever. I'm a watcher. I'm a stalker. I love everything about people. It's always been a passion for me to observe. ~ Xavier Dolan

At home there tarries like a lurking snake,
Biding its time, a wrath unreconciled,
A wily watcher, passionate to slake,
In blood, resentment for a murdered child. ~ Aeschylus

I'm not a royal family watcher. ~ Bill Nighy

I'm not a big TV watcher guy; I like being outside. ~ Billy Magnussen

I don't think I'm more of a screenwriter than I am a fiction writer. I'm more of a reader than a film-watcher, so I imagine that I'm not approaching fiction or films in a particularly cinematic way. ~ Miranda July

I'm a big people-watcher. I love it. But I feel bad about it, because I always get caught! ~ Seann William Scott

You say wicked like it's a bad thing. ~ Deborah Blake

I'm a casual watcher. I like to stream everything. ~ Tyler Oakley

I'm a world-class people watcher. I like to watch people's body movements, their expressions. It says so much about them. ~ Jill Scott