Quotes About Attention

Like I'm doing right now?" I perked up, thinking

Like the saying goes: They passed out the brains, he thought they said trains and he missed his.

By a man's fingernails, by his coat-sleeve, by his boots, by his trouser-knees, by the calluses of his forefinger and thumb, by his expression, by his shirt-cuffs, by his movements—by each of these things a man's calling is plainly revealed. That all united should fail to enlighten the competent enquirer in any case is almost inconceivable. SHERLOCK HOLMES, 1892

First was the fewer, not less. Now it was the care in avoiding a preposition at the end of a sentence. An educated man, presumably. Precise. Apparently fussy about small-minded rules, perhaps to compensate for a willingness to ignore large ones.

Is she your first girlfriend?" I asked, my tone gentle. "I told you, she's not really my girlfriend," he said, ducking the question. "If she's occupying enough of your attention to keep you in bed until the sun sets, I feel safe using the word as shorthand.

using the chrome and glass around me to gauge whether there was anyone to my rear trying to keep up.

He exchanged a few words with Washio, who looked around and then pointed at me. I had the sudden sense that this was more attention from Murakami than I really wanted. I watched him nudge his two men. The three of them started moving toward me. Adrenaline dumped into my veins. I felt the surge. I looked around casually, searching for a weapon of convenience. There was nothing handy. They walked up and stood in front of me, three abreast, Murakami slightly in front of the other two.

After all, to worry, at a minimum you have to care.

I was surprised at how much the genuine clothes made me feel like a monk. I would remember that—that the details mattered, not just in how you looked, but in how you felt, in the kind of unconscious vibe you emanated and that people might key on one way or the other.

But it seemed clever and careful was exactly what drew the attention of God's Eye.

I was impressed. I had been taking care not to stand out or to otherwise become memorable, and he had spotted me anyway. He was well attuned to his environment, to the patterns that might at some point make the difference between winning and losing. Or living and dying.

After you have finished with the stone, the twigs and beetle, other things will suggest themselves, and you must take care of them. I see you are already tired. But you must stay. This is the pain of it all. You can't keep leaving.

When we enter the landscape to learn something, we are obligated, I think, to pay attention rather than constantly to pose questions.

Choosers have the time to modify their goals; pickers do not. Choosers have the time to avoid following the herd; pickers do not. Good decisions take time and attention, and the only way we can find the needed time and attention is by choosing our spots.

The kind of truth that can be asserted by argument had lost all glamour, all lustre, for him, seeming no more now than another aspect of that ancient urge - much older than the desire for truth - to command attention, dominate one's fellows.

It's time to quit fucking around, don't you know that? When you start to see colored footprints on the sidewalk, it's time to quit fucking around and go to the doctor.

I felt as conspicuous as a baby whale in a goldfish pond.

The cult of celebrity is cogitative shit running through the bowel of the intellect.

The central reason that Bush rejected the ambitious option of long-term engagement in Afghanistan, however, was that his attention was focused elsewhere. He understood the importance of stabilizing Afghanistan and would certainly have been happy to capture bin Laden and his henchmen, but his zeal for these projects paled beside his obsession with Iraq and Saddam Hussein.

For optimal dream recall, do not move from the position in which you awaken. hold completely still, and focus your attention only on what was just going through your mind. Avoid the usual pattern of thinking of the day's concerns immediately upon awakening.

Because noting states of mind as they arise keep us present, it allows us to meet difficulties at their inception – before they become more real than we are.

As we begin to see where we have been absent from life, increasing possibilities audition for our approval.

From what I can tell, the chief distinguishing factor between children and adults is that children hear everything while appearing not to and adults hear nothing while pretending to listen.

You have to water the flowers you want to grow.