Custom is observed as law. [ Law ]

In a leopard the spots are not observed. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

Good counsels observed are chains to grace. [ Fuller ]

The custom of the manor and the place must be observed. [ Law Maxim ]

They that talk like philosophers are often observed to act like fools. [ Proverb ]

In times of necessity the words of the wise are worthy to be observed. [ Hitopadesa ]

Observed duties maintain our credit, but secret duties maintain our life. [ Flavel ]

He alone is an acute observer who can observe minutely without being observed. [ Lavater ]

Decency is the least of all laws, yet the law which is most strictly observed. [ Rochefoucauld ]

Nature does not like to be observed, and likes that we should be her fools and playmates. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]

Good counsels observed are chains to grace, which neglected, prove halters to strange undutiful children. [ Fuller ]

It is observed of gold, by an old epigrammatist, that to have it is to be in fear, and to want it, to be in sorrow. [ Johnson ]

An elegant writer has observed, that wit may do very well for a mistress, but that he should prefer reason for a wife. [ Colton ]

There is a mean in all things. Even virtue itself hath its stated limits; which not being strictly observed, it ceases to be virtue. [ Horace ]

Too much idleness, I have observed, fills up a man's time more completely and leaves him less his own master, than any sort of employment whatsoever. [ Burke ]

I have somewhere seen it observed that we should make the same use of a book that the bee does of a flower: she steals sweets from it, but does not injure it. [ Colton ]

The attempt to make one false impression on the mind of a friend respecting ourselves is of the nature of perfidy. Sincerity should be observed most scrupulously. [ William Ellery Channing ]

Among many parallels which men of imagination have drawn between the natural and moral state of the world, it has been observed that happiness as well as virtue consists in mediocrity. [ Dr. Johnson ]

Sir Francis Bacon observed that a well-written book, compared with its rivals and antagonists, is like Moses' serpent, that immediately swallowed up and devoured those of the Egyptians. [ Addison ]

It is observed at sea that men are never so much disposed to grumble and mutiny as when least employed. Hence an old captain, when there was nothing else to do, would issue the order to scour the anchor. [ Samuel Smiles ]

Someone once observed, and the observation did him credit, whoever he was, that the dearest things in the world were neighbors' eyes, for they cost everybody more than anything else contributing to housekeeping. [ Albert Smith ]

It is a commonly observed fact that the enslavement of women is invariably associated with a low type of social life, and that, conversely, her elevation towards an equality with man uniformly accompanies progress. [ Herbert Spencer ]

Mrs. Crupp had indignantly assured him that there wasn't room to swing a cat there; but as Mr. Dick justly observed to me, sitting down on the foot of the bed, nursing his leg, You know, Trotwood, I don't want to swing a cat. I never do swing a cat. Therefore what does that signify to me! [ Charles Dickens ]