Diversion Quotes - Page 3

• I am what a romantic movie is to a profound thinker - a mere diversion, a comic interlude, something that is soon forgotten.

  Anne Frank

  Profound, Forgotten, Comic

  Anne Frank (2011). “The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition”, p.194, Bantam

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• Before, I wandered as a diversion. Now I wander seriously and sit and read as a diversion.

  Walker Percy

  Wander

  Walker Percy (2011). “The Moviegoer”, p.33, Open Road Media

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• Happiness in reality consists only in rest, and not in being stirred up. This instinct conflicts with the drive to diversion, and we develop the confused idea that leads people to aim at rest through excitement.

  Dallas Willard

  Confused, Reality, Ideas

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• Laziness begat wearisomeness, and this put men in quest of diversions, play and company, on which however it is a constant attendant; he who works hard, has enough to do with himself otherwise.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Hard Work, Men, Play

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• I seek in the reading of books, only to please myself, by an honest diversion.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Book, Reading, Honest

  Michel de Montaigne (2013). “Michel de Montaigne: Selected Essays”, p.71, Courier Corporation

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• 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

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• It is necessary now and then for a man to go away by himself and experience loneliness; to sit on a rock in the forest and to ask of himself, 'Who am I, and where have I been, and where am I going?'...If one is not careful, one allows diversions to take up one's time-the stuff of life

  Carl Sandburg

  Loneliness, Men, Rocks

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• Travel by canoe is not a necessity, and will nevermore be the most efficient way to get from one region to another, or even from one lake to another anywhere. A canoe trip has become simply a rite of oneness with certain terrain, a diversion off the field, an art performed not because it is a necessity but because there is value in the art itself.

  John McPhee

  Art, Lakes, Oneness

  John McPhee (1982). “The Survival of the Bark Canoe”, p.34, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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• It is terrible that we all die and lose everything we love; it is doubly terrible that so many human beings suffer needlessly while alive. That so much of this suffering can be directly attributed to religion—to religious hatreds, religious wars, religious delusions and religious diversions of scarce resources—is what makes atheism a moral and intellectual necessity.

  Sam Harris

  Religious, War, Hatred

  "Letter to a Christian Nation". Book by Sam Harris, www.theguardian.com. January 8, 2008.

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• Having fun is not a diversion from a successful life; it is the pathway to it.

  Martha Beck

  Fun, Successful, Pathways

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• And as men diversions increase from the world, so do their entanglements from Satan. When they have more to do in the world than they can well manage, they shall have more to do from Satan than they can withstand.

  John Owen

  Men, World, Satan

  John Owen (1851). “The Works ...”, p.296

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• My take on tithing in America is that it's a middle-class way of robbing God. Tithing to the church and spending the rest on your family is not a Christian goal. It's a diversion. The real issue is: How shall we use God's trust fund-namely, all we have-for His glory? In a world with so much misery, what lifestyle should we call our people to live? What example are we setting?

  John Piper

  Christian, Real, Class

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• F.R. Leavis's "eat up your broccoli" approach to fiction emphasises this junkfood/wholefood dichotomy. If reading a novel--for theeighteenth century reader, the most frivolous of diversions--did not, by the middle of the twentieth century, make you a better person in some way, then you might as well flush the offending volume down the toilet, which was by far the best place for the undigested excreta of dubious nourishment.

  Angela Carter

  Reading, Offending, Dubious

  Angela Carter (2012). “Expletives Deleted: Selected Writings”, p.22, Random House

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• I understand some of the people's impatience with the show last year. I think that Lisa's (Lili Taylor) story line (marrying Nate with minimal motivation in season three) became a little bit of a diversion - and that happens. It happens in every show.

  Chris Albrecht

  Motivation, Thinking, Years

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• The diversion of baiting an author has the sanction of all ages and nations, and is more lawful than the sport of teasing other animals, because, for the most part, he comes voluntarily to the stake, furnished, as he imagines, by the patron powers of literature, with resistless weapons, and impenetrable armour, with the mail of the boar of Erymanth, and the paws of the lion of Nemea.

  Samuel Johnson

  Sports, Writing, Animal

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1840). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.267

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• A decade or so ago, all over the world, cinemas underwent one of those prince-into-frog mutations, and became, instead popcorn-restaurants, which offered the option of visual diversions for diners.

  Kevin Myers

  Hollywood, Mutation, Popcorn

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• Of this diversion the Scots are so fond, that, when the weather will permit, you may see a multitude of all ranks, from the senator of justice to the lowest tradesman, mingled together, in their shirts, and following the balls with utmost eagerness.

  Tobias Smollett

  Golf, Weather, Justice

  Tobias Smollett (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Tobias Smollett (Illustrated)”, p.2137, Delphi Classics

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• Ironing is a great diversion from the reality you dont want to face.

  Melissa McBride

  Reality, Want, Faces

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• And with iPods and iPads, and Xboxes and PlayStations - none of which I know how to work - information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation.

  Barack Obama

  Xbox, Mean, Ipads

  "CNN Student News Transcript". Interview with Carl Azuz, www.cnn.com. May 11, 2010.

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• If man were happy, he would be the more so, the less he was diverted, like the saints and God.

  Blaise Pascal

  Happiness, God, Men

  Blaise Pascal (2013). “Pensées”, p.49, Courier Corporation

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• I watch sports all the time. My wife Cindy says I would watch the thumb-suckers play the bed-wetters. I watch all sports and I enjoy all sports. It's been great fun in my life and a great diversion.

  John McCain

  Sports, Fun, Play

  Source: sports.espn.go.com

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• When we generally make healthy choices about food (or wise choices about life), we tend to move in the right direction, living as we believe God wants us to live. If we make an intentional exception for a special treat or for a diversion, that might not be a big deal. But if we step off the best path, we're tempted to detour into more unwise choices. In that case, your decision does matter.

  Craig Groeschel

  Wise, Moving, Believe

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• Words are so often used in the opposite sense, as a screen of diversion. It's the struggle towards truthfulness which is the same whether one is writing a poem, a novel or an argument.

  John Berger

  Struggle, Writing, Opposites

  "Q & A / John Berger / The moment of truth is now". Interview with Kenneth Baker, www.sfgate.com. January 6, 2002.

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• We wait. We are bored. (He throws up his hand.) No, don't protest, we are bored to death, there's no denying it. Good. A diversion comes along and what do we do? We let it go to waste. Come, let's get to work! (He advances towards the heap, stops in his stride.) In an instant all will vanish and we'll be alone more, in the midst of nothingness!

  Samuel Beckett

  Hands, Bored, Waiting

  Samuel Beckett (2012). “The Complete Dramatic Works of Samuel Beckett”, p.72, Faber & Faber

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• I used to wonder why Lucy liked those songs so much. You know what I mean? She sits in the dark and listens and cries. Music does that to her...I didn't understand for a long time. But I do now. The sad songs are a safe hurt. It's a diversion. It's controlled. And maybe it helps you imagine that real pain will be like that. But it's not. Lucy knows that, of course. You can't prepare for real pain. You just have to let it rip you apart.

  Harlan Coben

  Song, Hurt, Pain

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