Distracted Quotes - Page 4

• His outflung hands traced over the threads of his rug, passed loop by loop through some patient woman's hands. Or maybe she hadn't been patient. Maybe she'd been tired, or irritated, or distracted, or hungry, or angry. Maybe she had been dying. But her hands had kept moving, all the same.

  Lois McMaster Bujold

  Moving, Tired, Hands

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• A clever enemy would kiss my hand, then stab at my back while I was distracted. (Stryker) A coward’s action. Truly. Don’t insult either one of us with such a suggestion. I don’t believe in petty juvenile attacks. I go after what I want, and when it’s the life of an enemy I don’t want there to be any mistaking my intention. If you’re worth my hatred, then you’re worth my letting you know that I’m coming for you. (Zephyra)

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Clever, Believe, Kissing

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• With mind distracted, never thinking, "Death is coming," To slave away on the pointless business of mundane life, And then to come out empty--it is a tragic error. (116) trans by Robert Thurman

  Huston Smith

  Thinking, Errors, Mind

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• If the heart wanders or is distracted, bring it back to the point quite gently... And even if you did nothing during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back, though it went away every time you brought it back, your hour would be very well employed.

  Saint Francis de Sales

  Heart, Mindfulness, Would Be

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• Are you distracted by outward cares? Then allow yourself a space of quiet wherein you can add to your knowledge of the Good and learn to curb your restlessness. Nowhere can a man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. Avail yourself often, then, of this retirement, and so continually renew yourself.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Retirement, Space, Soul

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• I was much more afraid in Montgomery when I had a gun in my house. When I decided that I couldn’t keep a gun, I came face-to-face with the question of death and I dealt with it. From that point on, I no longer needed a gun nor have I been afraid. Had we become distracted by the question of my safety we would have lost the moral offensive and sunk to the level of our oppressors.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Gun, Safety, House

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• A second later, when he looked up at me, we were face to face, and again, even under these circumstances, I was struck by how good looking he was, in that accidental, doesn't-even-know-it kind of way. Which only made it worse. Or better. Or whatever. "Yup", he said, as if there'd been any doubt, "you're in there, all right." "I was warned, too,"I told him, as he stood up. "I just saw that sculpture, and I got distracted." "The sculpture?" He looked at it, then at me. "Oh, right. Because you know it.

  Sarah Dessen

  Doubt, Sculpture, Way

  Sarah Dessen (2006). “The Truth About Forever”, p.90, Penguin

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• The distracted person, too, can form habits.

  Walter Benjamin

  Habit, Form, Persons

  Walter Benjamin (2015). “Illuminations”, p.182, Random House

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• Can't you just thank me and get over it?" "Thank you." I waited, fuming and expectant. "You're not going to let it go, are you?" "No." "In that case . . . I hope you enjoy disappointment." We scowled at each other in silence. I was the first to speak, trying to keep myself focused. I was in danger of being distracted by his livid, glorious face. It was like trying to stare down a destroying angel. "Why did you even bother?" I asked frigidly. He paused, and for a brief moment his stunning face was unexpectedly vulnerable. "I don't know," he whispered.

  Stephenie Meyer

  Disappointment, Angel, Silence

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• Everything distracted me, but most of all myself.

  Patti Smith

  Patti Smith (2010). “Just Kids”, p.152, A&C Black

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• I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him, because He first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, One who loves me; and there is no moment when His eye is off me, or His attention distracted for me, and no moment, therefore, when His care falters.

  J. I. Packer

  Eye, Knowing, Hands

  J. I. Packer, Carolyn Nystrom (2009). “Knowing God Devotional Journal: A One-Year Guide”, p.7, InterVarsity Press

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• It was also her nature that caused her letters to avoid emotional pitfalls and confine themselves to relating the events of her daily life in the utilitarian style of a ship's log. In reality they were distracted letters, intended to keep the coals alive without putting her hand in the fire, while Florentino Ariza burned himself alive in every line.

  Gabriel Garcia Marquez

  Reality, Emotional, Fire

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• I have a constitutional weakness in which I am very easily distracted by flashing lights. If there is a TV on in the room, I can't have a conversation with you. I won't eat, I won't sleep, I'll just meld with my couch.

  Rachel Maddow

  Sleep, Light, Weakness

  "Bay Area's Maddow is cable talk's newest star". Interview with Joe Garofoli, www.sfgate.com. September 11, 2008.

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• The love song must be born into the realm of the irrational, absurd, the distracted, the melancholic, the obsessive, the insane for the love song is the noise of love itself and love is, of course, a form of madness.

  Nick Cave

  Song, Love Is, Insane

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• You might find it difficult to see anything but your own sadness, the way smoke can cover a landscape so that all anyone can see is black. You may find that if someone pours water all over you, you are damp and distracted, but not cured of your sadness, the way a fire department can douse a fire but never recover what has been burnt down.

  Daniel Handler

  Sad, Fire, Water

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• The writer cannot make the seas of distraction stand still, but he [or she] can at times come between the madly distracted and the distractions.

  Saul Bellow

  Writing, Sea, Distraction

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• The mind is easily distracted; it loses its focus and becomes restless. If it is not directed positively, its power will be diffused.

  Chin-Ning Chu

  Positive, Focus, Mind

  Chin-Ning Chu (2010). “Thick Face, Black Heart: The Warrior Philosophy for Conquering the Challenges of Business and Life”, p.165, Hachette UK

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• My take on the whole dot-com bubble was that a lot of people who wanted to make a lot of money got too excited and hyped up the commercial aspects of the Internet prematurely. I think the vision of the Internet as a democratizing medium - as everyone's printing press - is real. We got distracted from that by the mass hallucinations of the bubble.

  Craig Newmark

  Money, Business, Real

  "CRAIGSLIST / On the record: Craig Newmark". San Francisco Chronicle Interview, www.sfgate.com. August 15, 2004.

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• The materialistic pattern of life is that where money predominates over everything. The non-materialistic life is that where money is just a means - happiness predominates, joy predominates; your own individuality predominates. You know who you are and where you are going, and you are not distracted. Then suddenly you will see your life has a meditative quality to it.

  Rajneesh

  Money, Mean, Joy

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• We have been distracted into unnatural motivations: money, prestige, power. Listening to the cuckoo is not going to give you money. Listening to the cuckoo is not going to give you power, prestige. Watching the butterfly is not going to help you economically, politically, socially. These things are not paying, but these things make you happy.

  Rajneesh

  Money, Motivation, Butterfly

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• If the old dog hadn't got distracted by the fire plug, he would have caught the rabbit.

  Hayes McClerkin

  Dog, Fire, Rabbits

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• The critical element in meditation practice is beginning again. Everyone loses focus at times, everyone loses interest at times, and everyone gets distracted over and over again. What is essential, and also incredibly transforming, is realizing that we have the ability to begin again, without blaming or judging ourselves, without thinking we have failed, without losing heart, we can, and need to, constantly be beginning again.

  Sharon Salzberg

  Yoga, Heart, Thinking

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• I focus on my work. If I let myself get distracted by the insults and slanders I wouldn't get anything substantive done.

  Norman Finkelstein

  Hard Work, Focus, Insulting

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• Generally we waste our lives, distracted from our true selves, in endless activity. Meditation is the way to bring us back to ourselves, where we can really experience and taste our full being.

  Sogyal Rinpoche

  Spiritual, Self, Meditation

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• Because the demands on the goalie are mostly mental, it means that for a goalie the biggest enemy is himself. Not a puck, not a opponent, not a quirk of size or style. The stress and anxiety he feels when he plays, the fear of failing, the fear of being embarrassed, the fear of being physically hurt, all symptoms of his position, in constant ebb and flow, but never disappearing. The successful goalie understands these neuroses, accept them, and put them under control. The unsuccessful goalie is distracted by them, his mind in knots. His body quickly follows.

  Ken Dryden

  Hurt, Stress, Mean

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