Diversion Quotes - Page 3

• You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts; And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime. And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.

  Khalil Gibran

  Peace, Heart, Thinking

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

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• The best kept secret in America today is that people would rather work hard for something they believe in than live a life of aimless diversion.

  John W. Gardner

  Life, Believe, Hard Work

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  17 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  4 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

• 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.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Golf is an ideal diversion, but a ruinous disease.

  B. C. Forbes

  Golf, Disease, Ideals

  7 Copy quote

• I will tell you what rule I observed when I was young, and too much addicted to childish diversions-never to spend more time in mere recreation in one day than I spent in private religious devotions.

  Susanna Wesley

  Religious, One Day, Too Much

  137 Copy quote

• The ordinary patient goes to his doctor because he is in pain or some other discomfort and wants to be comfortable again; he is not in pursuit of the ideal of health in any direct sense. The doctor on the other hand wants to discover the pathological condition and control it if he can. The two are thus to some degree at cross purposes from the first, and unless the affair is brought to an early and happy conclusion this diversion of aims is likely to become more and more serious as the case goes on.

  Wilfred Trotter

  Pain, Health, Science

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Prison always has been a good place for writers, killing, as it does, the twin demons of mobility and diversion

  Dan Simmons

  Doe, Mobility, Twins

  Dan Simmons (2011). “Hyperion”, p.231, Spectra

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  57 Copy quote

  Show source

• Because to the poor, books are not diversions. Book are siege weapons.

  Joe Queenan

  Book, Weapons, Siege

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  4 Copy quote