Preoccupation Quotes

• It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, Money, Freedom

  "Principles of Social Reconstruction". Book by Bertrand Russell, 1917.

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• A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is but often prompts us to rearrange the past.

  Eric Hoffer

  Future, Adversity, Past

  Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

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• It had always been a British preoccupation to hold this mile record.

  Roger Bannister

  Athlete, Records, Miles

  "What It Takes" with Alice Winkler, learningenglish.voanews.com. February 23, 2018.

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• I've discovered I've got this preoccupation with ordinary people pursued by large forces.

  Steven Spielberg

  People, Ordinary, Force

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• War on terrorism defines the central preoccupation of the United States in the world today, and it does reflect in my view a rather narrow and extremist vision of foreign policy of the world's first superpower, of a great democracy, with genuinely idealistic traditions.

  Zbigniew Brzezinski

  War, Views, Vision

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• Preoccupation with money is the great test of small natures, but only a small test of great ones.

  Nicolas Chamfort

  Nature, Money, Tests

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• At the point when continuity was interrupted by the first nuclear explosion, it would have been too easy to recover the formal sediment which linked us with an age of poetic decorum, of a preoccupation with poetic sounds.

  Salvatore Quasimodo

  Age, Sound, Nuclear

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• But because we live in an age of science, we have a preoccupation with corroborating our myths.

  Michael Shermer

  Science, Age, Myth

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• We all suffer from the preoccupation that there exists... in the loved one, perfection.

  Sidney Poitier

  Love, Perfection, Suffering

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• That is my major preoccupation, memory, the kingdom of memory. I want to protect and enrich that kingdom, glorify that kingdom and serve it.

  Elie Wiesel

  Memories, Literature, Want

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• A remarkable feature of the humanitarian movement, on both its sentimental and utilitarian sides, has been its preoccupation with the lot of the masses.

  Irving Babbitt

  Movement, Sides, Sentimental

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• What is the thread of western civilization that distinguished its course in history? It has to do with the preoccupation of western man with his outward command and his sense of superiority.

  Arthur Erickson

  Men, Civilization, Thread

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• Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from.

  Eric Hoffer

  God, Stars, Airplane

  www.nytimes.com. July 21, 1969.

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• Today's preoccupation with physical theories of everything takes a wrong turn from the purpose of science - to question all things relentlessly. Modern physics has become like Swift's kingdom of Laputa, flying absurdly on an island above the earth and indifferent to what is beneath.

  Robert Lanza

  Islands, Flying, Purpose

  "A New Theory of the Universe". Essay by Robert Lanza, theamericanscholar.org. March 1, 2007.

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• Maybe the preoccupation with technological progress has overshadowed our concern with human progress.

  Wynton Marsalis

  Progress, Concern, Technological

  "Uber CEO’s Time-Out Is a Wake-Up Call to Us All" by David Sable, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 20, 2017.

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• The intellectual is not defined by professional group and type of occupation. Nor are good upbringing and a good family enough in themselves to produce an intellectual. An intellectual is a person whose interest in and preoccupation with the spiritual side of life are insistent and constant and not forced by external circumstances, even flying in the face of them. An intellectual is a person whose thought is nonimitative.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Spiritual, Flying, Intellectual

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• The passionate controversies of one era are viewed as sterile preoccupations by another, for knowledge alters what we seek as well as what we find.

  Freda Adler

  Knowledge, Passionate, Eras

  "Sisters in Crime: The Rise of the New Female Criminal". Book by Freda Adler, 1975.

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• Our worst fault is our preoccupation with the faults of others.

  Khalil Gibran

  Relationship, Acceptance, Faults

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• It was less a literary thing than a linguistic, philosophical preoccupation... discovering how far you can go with language to create immediate, elementary experience.

  Robert Morgan

  Philosophical, Language, Discovering

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• Any preoccupation with ideas of what is right or wrong in conduct shows an arrested intellectual development.

  Oscar Wilde

  Ideas, Intellectual, Development

  "Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young" (1894)

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• Too great a preoccupation with motives (especially one's own motive) is liable to lead to too little concern for consequences.

  Katharine Whitehorn

  Motivation, Littles, Liable

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• At some point preoccupation with safety can get in the way of living full lives.

  Alan Hirsch

  Safety, Way, Full Life

  Michael Frost, Alan Hirsch (2011). “The Faith of Leap (Shapevine): Embracing a Theology of Risk, Adventure & Courage”, p.85, Baker Books

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• Perhaps a modern society can remain stable only by eliminating adolescence, by giving its young, from the age of ten, the skills, responsibilities, and rewards of grownups, and opportunities for action in all spheres of life. Adolescence should be a time of useful action, while book learning and scholarship should be a preoccupation of adults.

  Eric Hoffer

  Life, Book, Learning

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• Self-absorption in all its forms kills empathy, let alone compassion. When we focus on ourselves, our world contracts as our problems and preoccupations loom large. But when we focus on others, our world expands. Our own problems drift to the periphery of the mind and so seem smaller, and we increase our capacity for connection - or compassionate action.

  Daniel Goleman

  Compassion, Our World, Self

  "Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships". Book by Daniel Goleman, September 19, 2006.

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• Staying occupied displaces preoccupation and problems, and when we face our problems, they disappear.

  Carlos Slim

  Faces, Problem, Disappear

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