Distraction Quotes - Page 10

• People really get myopic as they get older. We're not a culture that encourages dreaming or distraction. We're not ever good at just being. I remember reading some Adrienne Rich quote where she talks about how important it was just to watch bubbles rise in a glass.

  Karen Russell

  Dream, Reading, Glasses

  "Karen Russell’s Fantastical World". Interview with Maddie Oatman, www.motherjones.com. February 7, 2013.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The abundance of books is distraction

  Seneca the Younger

  Book, Abundance

  8 Copy quote

• All things can tempt me from this craft of verse:
  One time it was a woman's face, or worse--
  The seeming needs of my fool-driven land;
  Now nothing but comes readier to the hand
  Than this accustomed toil.

  William Butler Yeats

  Hands, Land, Poetry

  William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.38, Hayes Barton Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The art of meditation may be exercised at all hours, and in all places, and men of genius, in their walks, at table, and amidst assemblies, turning the eye of the the mind upwards, can form an artificial solitude; retired amidst a crowd, calm amidst distraction, and wise amidst folly.

  Isaac D'Israeli

  Wise, Art, Eye

  15 Copy quote

• I've been naked physically in movies - but it's a whole other thing to be naked emotionally in a way that's not just a distraction or a character.

  Viggo Mortensen

  Character, Naked, Way

  Source: collider.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• What is now happening to the people of the East as of the West is like what happens to every individual when he passes from childhood to adolescence and from youth to manhood. He loses what had hitherto guided his life and lives without direction, not having found a new standard suitable to his age, and so he invents all sorts of occupations, cares, distractions, and stupefactions to divert his attention from the misery and senselessness of his life. Such a condition may last a long time.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Long, People, Childhood

  graf Leo Tolstoy (1989). “I Cannot be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Distractions are everywhere. And with the always-on technologies of today, they take a heavy toll on productivity. One study found that office distractions eat an average 2.1 hours a day. Another study, published in October 2005, found that employees spent an average of 11 minutes on a project before being distracted. After an interruption it takes them 25 minutes to return to the original task, if they do at all.

  David Rock

  Technology, Average, Office

  8 Copy quote

• The relative ease of most driving lures us into thinking we can get away with doing other things. Indeed, those other things, like listening to the radio, can help when driving itself is threatening to cause fatigue. But we buy into the myth of multitasking with little actual knowledge of how much we can really add in or, as with the television news, how much we are missing. As the inner life of the driver begins to come into focus, it is becoming clear not only that distraction is the single biggest problem on the road but that we have little concept of just how distracted we are.

  Tom Vanderbilt

  Thinking, Focus, Missing

  6 Copy quote

• I think it was rather an advantage not having any living poets in England or America in whom one took any particular interest. I don't know what it would be like but I think it would be a rather troublesome distraction to have such a lot of dominating presences, as you call them, about. Fortunately we weren't bothered by each other.

  T. S. Eliot

  Thinking, America, Poetry

  6 Copy quote

• Silence. There are times it's the only thing I want and I wonder how I'll ever go back to the world of noise and distraction.

  Eric Lange

  Silence, Want, Noise

  "Eric Lange from FX's hit show The Bridge". Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The new Rwanda is about building an economy that delivers prosperity and opportunity for our citizens based on a robust private sector. Foreign adventures would be costly and counterproductive distractions from these challenging objectives.

  Paul Kagame

  Adventure, Opportunity, Challenges

  "Exclusive interview: Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda". Interview with Tony Metcalf, www.metro.us. August 29, 2012.

  67 Copy quote

  Show source

• The mind is running on all sides to think about many things, - what we call thoughts coming from outside. We must withdraw the mind from these distractions and make it abide in the self. Thus guarding the peace within we shall have to do the work without.

  Sri Aurobindo

  Running, Thinking, Self

  Source: overmanfoundation.wordpress.com

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Mentally prepare ourselves for excellence...block out the noise of everyday distractions and tap into the quietness of meaningful focus, intent and a winning mindset.

  Robert Cheeke

  Meaningful, Block, Winning

  13 Copy quote

• I'm a very focused person. If I'm focusing on something I don't like distractions and I like to just do that one thing. And Jiu-Jitsu and MMA basically became that one thing for me.

  Gunnar Nelson

  Mma, Jiu Jitsu, Persons

  4 Copy quote

• The amateur has a long list of fears. Near the top are two: Solitude and silence. The amateur fears solitude and silence because she needs to avoid, at all costs, the voice inside her head that would point her toward her calling and her destiny. So she seeks distraction. The amateur prizes shallowness and shuns depth. The culture of Twitter and Facebook is paradise for the amateur.

  Steven Pressfield

  Motivational, Destiny, Two

  15 Copy quote

• If you have a clear goal and a plan to achieve it, your focus is fixed on a set course of action. Instead of becoming sidetracked by distractions and diversions, your time is focused on a straight line from start to finish.

  Brian Tracy

  Clear Goals, Focus, Lines

  8 Copy quote

• I go to work as others rush to see their mistresses, and when I leave, I take back with me to my solitude, or in the midst of the distractions that I pursue, a charming memory that does not in the least resemble the troubled pleasure of lovers.

  Eugene Delacroix

  Memories, Solitude, Mistress

  5 Copy quote

• Wickedness is a kind of voluntary frenzy, and a chosen distraction.

  John Tillotson

  Wickedness, Kind, Chosen

  John Tillotson (1794). “The Beauties of Dr. John Tillotson, Carefullet Selected from His Works [and] Containing His Admirable System of Early Education, Thoughts on Religion, Atheism and Infidelity, the Immortality of the Soul, Etc: To which are Prefixed Some of His Arguments for the Truth and Belief of the Christian Religion”, p.184

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are tons of things in your home and life that you don't use, need, or even particularly want. They just came into your life as impulsive flotsam and jetsam and never found a good exit. Whether you're aware of it or not, this clutter creates indecision and distractions.

  Tim Ferriss

  Home, Exit, Needs

  "The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich". Book by Timothy Ferriss, 2007.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is the bareness of drawing that I like. The act of drawing is what locates, suggests, discovers. At times it seems enough to draw, without the distractions of color and mass. Yet it is an old ambition to make drawing and painting one.

  Philip Guston

  Ambition, Color, Drawing

  Magdalena Dabrowski, Philip Guston (1988). “The drawings of Philip Guston”

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• I want to make a positive point of Ikea. It makes income inequality a minor distraction.

  Greg Gutfeld

  Ikea, Income, Want

  Source: www.foxnews.com

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• Distraction is the main problem for us all - what the Buddha called the monkey mind. We need to tame this monkey mind.

  Tenzin Palmo

  Mind, Needs, Monkeys

  Source: studybuddhism.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A few moments of inner peace and quiet allows the brain to reset itself. You become more centered as this happens, since the brain is clearing out distractions and too much "cross talk."

  Deepak Chopra

  Clearing Out, Inner Peace, Brain

  5 Copy quote

• Re. the Caribbean Conservation Corporation
  Everybody in the organization has subscribed to the original concept that its most important attributes are a single-minded resistance to any distraction from the central aim of keeping watch over the Tortuguero nesting colony and a determination to make it the most thoroughly studied sea turtle population in the world.

  Archie Carr

  Determination, Marine, Turtles

  11 Copy quote

• Far from the madding crowd is a mistake on a honeymoon.... Solitude! Wherever you are, if you're on a honeymoon, you'll get quite as much solitude as is good for you every twenty-four hours. Constant change and distraction -- that's what wants arranging for. Solitude will arrange itself.

  Arnold Bennett

  Mistake, Solitude, Four

  Arnold Bennett (1910). “The Honeymoon: A Comedy in Three Acts”, New York : G.H. Doran

  5 Copy quote

  Show source