Diversion Quotes

• People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

  Adam Smith

  Invisible Hand, People, Competition

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 10 (1776)

  90 Copy quote

  Show source

• Politics is the diversion of trivial men who, when they succeed at it, become important in the eyes of more trivial men.

  George Jean Nathan

  Eye, Men, Important

  29 Copy quote

• When there are no consequences, being wrong is simply a diversion.

  Ian Mcewan

  Being Wrong, Consequence

  13 Copy quote

• We were meant to grow. When we don't grow, we seek diversions--some harmless (if unproductive), others destructive--to fill the emptiness.

  Jim Clemmer

  Growth, Emptiness, Grows

  Jim Clemmer (1999). “Growing the Distance: Timeless Principles for Personal, Career, and Family Success”, p.15, Jim Clemmer

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.

  Khalil Gibran

  Spiritual, Philosophy, Thought Provoking

  Khalil Gibran (2014). “The Prophet - Der Prophet”, p.96, Lulu.com

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• Diversion and indifference are the two widest roads to Hell in today's world.

  Peter Kreeft

  Two, World, Today

  Peter Kreeft (1993). “Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal's Pensées Edited, Outlined, and Explained”, p.188, Ignatius Press

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• If our condition were truly happy, we would not need diversion from thinking of it in order to make ourselves happy.

  Blaise Pascal

  Order, Truly Happy, Conditions

  "Pensées".

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Everything that is good in the arts is done by some sort of diversion.

  John Roecker

  Art, Done, Art Is

  Interview with Kristopher Terrell, www.filmjerk.com. August 23, 2003.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• But teaching is like climbing a mountain.

  Fawn M. Brodie

  Teaching, Climbing, Mountain

  Los Angeles Times Home Magazine, February 20, 1977.

  58 Copy quote

  Show source

• How soon the labor of men would make a paradise of the earth were it not for misgovernment and a diversion of his energies to selfish interests.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Selfish, Men, Energy

  11 Copy quote

• People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty or justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary.

  Adam Smith

  Law, Justice, People

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 10 (1776)

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Successful leaders develop effective strategies for maintaining their boundaries. ... Most time bandits don't know any better. And being a time bandit is a matter of context. One person's time bandit is another person's pleasant diversion. ... Instead of gritting our teeth to be polite and resenting the time bandit for holding us up, the best choice is to be honest. We cannot expect another person to honor our needs unless we affirm them ourselves.

  Diane Dreher

  Leadership, Time, Successful

  10 Copy quote

• Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.

  Joseph Addison

  Life, Book, Reading

  Joseph Addison (1837). “The Works of Joseph Addison: The Spectator, no. 1-314”, p.148

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• I believe the main solution is to gain the trust of Europe and America and to remove their concerns over the peaceful nature of our nuclear industry and to assure them that there will never be a diversion to military use.

  Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

  Trust, Military, Believe

  "Candidate for change" by Mark Tran, www.theguardian.com. May 19, 2005.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The United States government first learned of the diversion of the W-88 nuclear warhead design in late 1995.

  Charles Bass

  Government, Design, United States

  8 Copy quote

• The committee discloses that even after the U.S. government learned of the diversion of U.S. designs for nuclear warheads in late 1995, the Clinton Administration failed to take steps immediately to improve security.

  Charles Bass

  Government, Design, Nuclear

  8 Copy quote

• This death cult has no reason and is beyond negotiation. This is what makes it so frightening. This is what causes so many to engage in a sort of mental diversion. They don't want to confront this horror. So they rush off in search of more comprehensible things to hate.

  David Brooks

  Hate, Scary, Want

  9 Copy quote

• The mind gets distracted in all sorts of ways. The heart is its own exclusive concern and diversion.

  Malcolm De Chazal

  Pregnancy, Heart, Mind

  11 Copy quote

• No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. She will not want new fashions nor regret the loss of expensive diversions or variety of company if she can be amused with an author in her closet.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Fashion, Regret, Reading

  Mary Wortley Montagu, James Archibald Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie Wharncliffe (1837). “The Letters and Works: In Three Volumes”, p.43

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's such a diversion to be constantly thinking of better ways I can teach people math that my hunger is for that really, for new ways of translating the beauty of it.

  Danica McKellar

  Math, Thinking, People

  "Wonder Years star Danica McKellar is super-slender just months after giving birth... her secret? It's all in the maths". www.dailymail.co.uk. May 2, 2011.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The writing of history is largely a process of diversion. Most historical accounts distract attention from the secret influences behind great events.

  Frank Herbert

  Writing, Historical, Secret

  Frank Herbert (1987). “Chapterhouse: Dune”, p.70, Penguin

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• An army is a diversion of energy from the productive life of a nation.

  Isabel Paterson

  Army, Productive Life, Energy

  Isabel Paterson (1993). “God of the Machine”, p.30, Transaction Publishers

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• If I can in any way contribute to the Diversion or Improvement of the Country in which I live, I shall leave it, when I am summoned out of it, with the secret Satisfaction of thinking that I have not lived in vain.

  Joseph Addison

  Country, Thinking, Secret

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1853). “The Spectator: With a Biographical and Critical Preface, and Explanatory Notes ...”, p.3

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nothing is so insufferable to man as to be completely at rest, without passions, without business, without diversion, without study. He then feels his nothingness, his forlornness, his insufficiency, his dependence, his weakness, his emptiness. There will immediately arise from the depth of his heart weariness, gloom, sadness, fretfulness, vexation, despair.

  Blaise Pascal

  Passion, Heart, Sadness

  Blaise Pascal (2013). “Pascal's Pensees”, p.40, Simon and Schuster

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• Man finds nothing so intolerable as to be in a state of complete rest, without passions, without occupation, without diversion, without effort. Then he feels his nullity, loneliness, inadequacy, dependence, helplessness, emptiness.

  Blaise Pascal

  Loneliness, Passion, Men

  13 Copy quote