observation

Those things that nature denied to human sight, she revealed to the eyes of the soul. — Ovid

The few wonders of the world only exist while there are those with the sight to see them. — Charles de Lint

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. — Helen Keller

Blindness
In the fullness of the years, like it or not,
A luminous mist surrounds me, unvarying,
That breaks things down into a single thing,
Colorless, formless. Almost into a thought.
The elemental, vast night and the day
Teeming with people have become that fog
Of constant, tentative light that does not flag,
And lies in wait at dawn. I longed to see
Just once a human face. Unknown to me
The closed encyclopedia, the sweet play
In volumes I can do not more than hold,
The tiny soaring birds, the moons of gold.
Others have the world, for better or worse,
I have this half-dark. and the toil of verse.
― Jorge Luis Borges

A single candle can light a thousand more without diminishing itself. — Hillel the Elder

Our very eyes are sometimes, like our judgments, blind. ―William Shakespeare

No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him … By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true. ― Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

That though the radiance which was once so bright be now forever taken from my sight. Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower. We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind. — William Wordsworth

Doing as others told me, I was blind.
Coming when others called me, I was lost.
Then I left everyone, myself as well.
Then I found everyone, myself as well.
― Jalaluddin Rumi

To be blind is not miserable; not to be able to bear blindness, that is miserable. — John Milton

What you lose in blindness is the space around you, the place where you are, and without that you might not exist. You could be nowhere at all. — Barbara Kingsolver

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. — Andre Gide

A blind man was riding an unheated train
— Arseny Tarkovsky, translated from the Russian by Philip Metres & Dimitri Psurtsev

A blind man was riding an unheated train,
From Bryansk he was traveling home with his fate.
~
Fate whispered to him so the whole car could hear:
And why should you care about blindness and war?
~
It’s good, she was saying, you’re sightless and poor.
If you were not blind, you’d never survive.
~
The Germans won’t kill you, you’re nothing to them.
Allow me to lift that bag on your shoulder—
~
The one with the holes, the empty torn one.
Let me just raise your eyelids wide open.
~
The blind man was traveling home with his fate,
Now thankful for blindness. Happy about it.