Distracted Quotes - Page 13

• Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted; it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in which instinct has learned nothing from experience.

  George Santayana

  Change, Children, Persistence

  George Santayana (2011). “The Life of Reason: Introduction and Reason in Common Sense”, p.172, MIT Press

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• Anyone who knew Violet well could tell she was thinking hard, because her long hair was tied up in a ribbon to keep it out of her eyes. Violet had a real knack for inventing and building strange devices, so her brain was often filled with images of pulleys, levers, and gears, and she never wanted to be distracted by something as trivial as her hair.

  Daniel Handler

  Real, Eye, Thinking

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• I'm astounded whenever I finish something. Astounded and distressed. My perfectionist instinct should inhibit me from finishing; it should inhibit me from even beginning. But I get distracted and start doing something. What I achieve is not the product of an act of my will but of my will's surrender. I begin because I don't have the strength to think; I finish because I don't have the courage to quit. This book is my cowardice.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  "The Book of Disquiet".

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• Some people prefer solitude. They say their peace of mind depends on this. Others say they would be better off in church. If you do well, you do well wherever you are. If you fail, you fail wherever you are. Your surroundings don't matter. God is with you everywhere -- in the market place as well as in seclusion or in the church. If you look for nothing but God, nothing or no one can disturb you. God is not distracted by a multitude of things. Nor can we be.

  Meister Eckhart

  Spiritual, People, Solitude

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• I think if I've learned anything about friendship, it's to hang in, stay connected, fight for them, and let them fight for you. Don't walk away, don't be distracted, don't be too busy or tired, don't take them for granted. Friends are part of the glue that holds life and faith together. Powerful stuff.

  Jon Katz

  Love, Friendship, Best Friend

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• The poet, distracted by politics, asks of poetry that it make itself useful like metal or flour, that it get ready to stain its face with coal dust and fight body to body.

  Eduardo Galeano

  Fighting, Dust, Coal

  Eduardo Galeano, Cedric Belfrage (1988). “Century of the Wind”, Pantheon Books

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• For much of its existence, design was all about convenience. We wanted to hide technology so that users are not distracted into thinking about the tools they use.

  Evgeny Morozov

  Technology, Thinking, Design

  "Author: Think twice about 'the Internet'". Interview with Todd Leopold, www.cnn.com. July 19, 2013.

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• My legs have become accustomed to the treadmill. And in L.A., running on the street is asking for a distracted texting driver to knock you over.

  Michael Weatherly

  Running, Asking, Legs

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• Liberal and conservative have lost their meaning in America. I represent the distracted center.

  Jon Stewart

  America, Conservative, Lost

  "Jon Stewart on Fake News". billmoyers.com. April 27, 2007.

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• I am guilty of buying way too many gadgets - way too many! And though I try to keep things nice and orderly, sometimes I get distracted and stick saucepans where the stockpots should go.

  Paula Deen

  Nice, Trying, Gadgets

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• One should not be too distracted by definitions. Ideas transcend definitions.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Ideas, Definitions, Should

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• A pure, sincere, and stable spirit is not distracted though it be employed in many works; for that it works all to the honor of God, and inwardly being still and quiet, seeks not itself in any thing it doth.

  Thomas a Kempis

  Honor, Spirit, Quiet

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 124, 1895.

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• I think there is an immense charm and humanity about the Bollywood structure, probably in the way there was about Hollywood film in the '30s and '40s. Somehow they were less distracted about hardware, and more about production values and people, you know?

  Julian Sands

  Thinking, Hollywood Films, People

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I get a lot of kids distracted. Sometimes they got to go cover left field, but they're over here talking to me, getting an autograph.

  Pedro Martinez

  Kids, Talking, Fields

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• I think a lot of times we can get distracted and not be in the moment with people and be missing all the life happening in the moment.

  Angela Kinsey

  Thinking, People, Missing

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• If you are interested in ideas, radio is way more pure than television. You're not distracted by somebody's nose or hair or posture. You can really see how someone thinks and penetrate to the essence of who that person is.

  Terry Gross

  Thinking, Hair, Essence

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• Finally, everybody agrees that no one pursuit can be successfully followed by a man who is preoccupied with many things-eloquence cannot, nor the liberal studies-since the mind, when distracted, takes in nothing very deeply, but rejects everything that is, as it were, crammed into it. There is nothing the busy man is less busied with than living: there is nothing that is harder to learn.

  Seneca the Younger

  Men, Mind, Study

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• Life offers its wisdom generously. Everything teaches. Not everyone learns. Life asks of us the same thing we have been asked in every class: "Stay awake." "Pay attention." But paying attention is no simple matter. It requires us not to be distracted by expectations, past experiences, labels, and masks. It asks that we not jump to early conclusions and that we remain open to surprise.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Past, Simple, Class

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• A person is alive only to the degree that he or she is aware. To make the most of life we must constantly strive to be aware of the importance of being aware. Be aware of your senses and use them: So often we are distracted and unconscious of the riches our senses can pour into our lives. We eat food without tasting it, listen to music without hearing it, smell without experiencing the pungency of odors and the delicacy of perfumes, touch without feeling the grain or texture, and see without appreciating the beauty around us.

  Wilferd Peterson

  Smell, Appreciate, Feelings

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• The thing to remember is that the work comes first, and not to get distracted by anything else. If you keep focused on the work, everything else will fall into place. That's my mantra now.

  James Nesbitt

  Fall, Firsts, Remember

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Why should there not be a European group which could give a sense of enlarged patriotism and common citizenship to the distracted peoples of this turbulent and mighty continent? And why should it not take its rightful place with other great groupings and help to shape the onward destinies of men?

  Winston Churchill

  Country, Destiny, Men

  Address on Unified Cooperation in Europe, delivered 19 September 1946, Zurich, Switzerland

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• I'm not a pop act, churning stuff out really quickly. I find the music that arises from that style of working is distracted, not particularly profound.

  Paloma Faith

  Profound, Style, Stuff

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• There are two extremes to avoid: being completely absorbed in your pain and being distracted by so many things that you stay far away from the wound you want to heal.

  Henri

  Pain, Two, Want

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• What we are talking about is learning to live in the present moment, in the now. When you aren't distracted by your own negative thinking, when you don't allow yourself to get lost in moments that are gone or yet to come, you are left with this moment. This moment-now-truly is the only moment you have. It is beautiful and special. Life is simply a series of such moments to be experienced one right after another. If you attend to the moment you are in and stay connected to your soul and remain happy, you will find that your heart is filled with positive feelings.

  Sydney Banks

  Beautiful, Heart, Thinking

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• The media are a corporate monopoly. They have the same point of view. The two parties are two factions of the business party. Most of the population doesn't even bother voting because it looks meaningless. They're marginalized and properly distracted. At least that's the goal.

  Noam Chomsky

  Party, Views, Media

  Noam Chomsky (2011). “Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda”, p.29, Seven Stories Press

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