Inattention Quotes

• The function of ignoring, of inattention, is as vital a factor in mental progress as the function of attention itself.

  William James

  Science, Mind, Progress

  William James (2012). “The Principles of Psychology”, p.298, Courier Corporation

  62 Copy quote

  Show source

• When a girl marries she exchanges the attentions of many men for the inattention of one.

  Helen Rowland

  Funny, Marriage, Girl

  Quoted in Evan Esar, The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations (1949)

  36 Copy quote

  Show source

• Cinema, radio, television, magazines are a school of inattention: people look without seeing, listen in without hearing.

  Robert Bresson

  School, Media, People

  "Notes on the Cinematograph".

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• Fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention.

  Amy Tan

  Fate, Expectations, Half

  Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club”, p.131, Penguin

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• And I think now that fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention. But somehow, when you lose something you love, faith takes over. -Rose

  Amy Tan

  Fate, Thinking, Expectations

  Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club”, p.131, Penguin

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• A single inattention may lose a chess game, whereas a single successful approach to a problem, among many which have been relegated to the wastebasket, will make a mathematician's reputation.

  Norbert Wiener

  Successful, Games, Chess Game

  Norbert Wiener (1953). “Ex-prodigy: My Childhood and Youth”

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• I never knew any man cured of inattention.

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, Attention

  Jonathan Swift (1751). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: Containing, I. His Miscellanies in prose. II. His poetical writings. III. The travels of Capt. Lemuel Gulliver. IV. Papers relating to Ireland, and The Drapier's letters. V. The conduct of the allies, and The examiners. VI. The publick spirit of the Whiggs, &c. with Polite conversation. VII. Letters to and from Dr. Swift. VIII. Directions to servants, sermons, poems, &c”, p.205

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• I would much rather sit, dimmed by inattention, and study the atmosphere and the silence and dance between people, but often times I’m not offered this privilege. The necessity for isolation, and the striving for popularity is the only contradiction I find in being a writer and an actress.

  Masiela Lusha

  People, Silence, Atmosphere

  "REEL Lady: Masiela Lusha". REEL Ladies Interview, reelladies.wordpress.com. September 1, 2008.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• In India, there are real consequences to inattention; drivers who jeopardize pedestrians can be lynched on the spot.

  Bharati Mukherjee

  Real, India, Spots

  52 Copy quote

• The Advantage is that mathematics is a field in which one's blunders tend to show very clearly and can be corrected or erased with a stroke of the pencil. It is a field which has often been compared with chess, but differs from the latter in that it is only one's best moments that count and not one's worst. A single inattention may lose a chess game, whereas a single successful approach to a problem, among many which have been relegated to the wastebasket, will make a mathematician's reputation.

  Norbert Wiener

  Success, Math, Games

  "Ex-Prodigy: My Childhood and Youth". Book by Norbert Wiener, 1964.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Familiarity breeds contempt only when it breeds inattention.

  George Santayana

  Contempt, Familiarity Breeds Contempt, Familiarity

  George Santayana (2012). “The Sense of Beauty”, p.103, Courier Corporation

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are two types of people in this world. People who hate clowns...and clowns. (Bobby Pendragon)

  D. J. MacHale

  Hate, Two, People

  65 Copy quote

• Simple inattention kills empathy, let alone compassion. So the first step in compassion is to notice the other's need. It all begins with the simple act of attention.

  Daniel Goleman

  Simple, Compassion, Empathy

  42 Copy quote

• Cultivate the habit of attention and try to gain opportunities to hear wise men and women talk. Indifference and inattention are the two most dangerous monsters that you ever meet. Interest and attention will insure to you an education.

  Robert Andrews Millikan

  Education, Wise, Opportunity

  20 Copy quote

• Many a good intention dies from inattention. If, through carelessness or indolence, or selfishness, a good intention is not put into effect, we have lost an opportunity, demoralized ourselves, and stolen from the pile of possible good. To be born and not fed, is to perish. To launch a ship and neglect it is to lose it. To have a talent and bury it, is to be a "wicked and slothful servant." For in the end we shall be judged, not alone by what we have done, but by what we could have done.

  Maltbie Davenport Babcock

  Opportunity, Selfishness, Wicked

  Maltbie Davenport Babcock (1901). “Thoughts for Every-day Living from the Spoken and Written Words of Maltbie Davenport Babcock”

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• the apathy and inattention of the average citizen is beyond comprehension.

  Abigail McCarthy

  Average, Apathy, Citizens

  6 Copy quote

• Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from...the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence.

  Daniel Webster

  Government, People, Destruction

  Daniel WEBSTER (1860). “The Union Text Book: Containing Selections from the Writings of D. W.; the Declaration of Independence; and Washington's Farewell Address, Etc”, p.259

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Adolescents sometimes say..."My friends listen to me, but my parents only hear me talk." Often they are right. Familiarity breeds inattention.

  Laurence Steinberg

  Parent, Sometimes, Listen To Me

  9 Copy quote

• Be conscious of yourself, watch your mind, give it your full attention. Don't look for quick results; there may be none within your noticing. Unknown to you, your psyche will undergo a change; there will be more clarity in your thinking, charity in your feeling, purity in your behavior. You need not aim at these - you will witness the change all the same. For, what you are now is the result of inattention and what you become will be the fruit of attention.

  Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

  Thinking, Giving, Feelings

  70 Copy quote

• Training a child is exactly like training a puppy; a little heedless inattention and it is out of hand immediately; the great thing is not to let it acquire bad habits that must afterward be broken.

  Emily Post

  Children, Hands, Broken

  Emily Post (2007). “Etiquette: In Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home”, p.571, Cosimo, Inc.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The art of reasoning becomes of first importance. In this line antiquity has left us the finest models for imitation; I should consider the speeches of Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus, as pre-eminent specimens of logic, taste, and that sententious brevity which, using not a word to spare, leaves not a moment for inattention to the hearer. Amplification is the vice of modern oratory.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Art, Taste, Firsts

  "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson". Book by Thomas Jefferson, p. 30, 1904.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• As crowds increase we build our forts of inattention, and the more we talk the easier it is to mean little and listen not at all.

  Frank Moore Colby

  Mean, Crowds, Littles

  Frank Moore Colby (1926). “The Colby essays ...”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The mountain of history books under which we all stand leans so heavily in the other direction-so tremblingly respectful of states and statesmen and so disrespectful, by inattention, to people's movements-that we need some counterforce to avoid being crushed into submission.

  Howard Zinn

  Book, People, Mountain

  Howard Zinn (2014). “A People's History of the United States”, p.560, Pan Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is always great beauty, not of images, feeling or thought. Beauty is neither thought nor feeling; it has nothing whatsoever to do with emotion or sentiment. There is fear. Fear is never an actuality; it is either before or after the active present. When there is fear in the active present, is it fear? It is there and there is no escape from it, no evasion possible. There, at that actual moment, there is total attention at the moment of danger, physical or psychological.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Fear, Facts, Flight

  "Krishnamurti's notebook".

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm one of the many people for whom coffee helps but often, inattention is a symptom of something else: for example, that you're not getting six to eight hours of sleep.

  Marty Nemko

  Coffee, Sleep, Eight

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source