Distracts Quotes & Sayings

You're right," he said, jerking open the portal. "There is one place she's sure to go."
"Yes."
"And you.You should take your own advice and leave this place," Daniel said grimly. "You're rotting in here."
"At least this body's pain distracts me from the pain in my soul," his past self said. "No.I wish you luck, but I won't leave these walls now.Not until she's settled in her next incarnation."
Daniel's wings bristled at his neck. He tried to sort out time and lives and memories in his head, but he kept circling around the same irksome thought. "She-she should be settled now. In conception. Can't you feel it?"
"Oh," his imprisoned past self said softly. He closed his eyes. "I don't know that I can feel anything anymore." The prisoner sighed heavily. "Life's a nightmare."
"No,it's not. Not anymore. I'll find her.I'll redeem us both," Daniel shouted, desperate to get out of there, desperately taking another leap of faith through time. — Lauren Kate

Working is hard and distracts from having fun. — Orson Scott Card

An entertainment is something which distracts us or diverts us from the routine of daily life. It makes us for the time being forget our cares and worries; it interrupts our conscious thoughts and habits, rests our nerves and minds, though it may incidentally exhaust our bodies. Art, on the other hand, though it may divert us from the normal routine of our existence, causes us in some way or other to become conscious of that existence. — Herbert Read

Prescriptive grammar has spread linguistic insecurity like a plague among English speakers for centuries, numbs us to the aesthetic richness of non-standard speech, and distracts us from attending to genuine issues of linguistic style in writing. — John McWhorter

The great corrupter of public man is the ego. Looking at the mirror distracts one's attention from the problem. — Dean Acheson

Large corporations have the ability to distract people with controversy that just distracts people from what's great about the movie or what works about the movie. — Peter Landesman

Despite all these obstacles and bad security situation, I have the energy and the resolve to train, but my head is full of ideas and it distracts me, and I need to focus. — Dana Hussein

There is nothing puzzling ... about America's gratuitously aggressive foreign policy or about the oligarchs' successful efforts to drag the Republic into five wars. What an aggressive foreign policy accomplishes by slow degrees, a state of war accomplishes in a trice. Overnight [war] kills reform, overnight it transforms insurgents into traitors and the Republic into an imperiled realm. Overnight it strangles free politics, distracts and overawes the citizenry. Overnight it blasts public hope. — Walter Karp

Hope distracts you from pain - it's pain with red lipstick on to seduce you. — Kevin James Moore

It seems to me that if one could accept existence as it is, partake of it fully, the world could be magical. The cricket on my balcony at the moment piercing the night repeatedly with its hurried needle of sound, would be welcome merely because it is there, rather than an annoyance because it distracts me from what I am trying to do. — Paul Bowles

He never even thought of tenderness and emotion; his considerations about Durham remained cold. Durham didn't dislike him, he was sure. That was all he wanted. One thing at a time. He didn't so much as have hopes, for hope distracts, and he had a great deal to see to. — E. M. Forster

Love makes you weak. It distracts you from the important things. It can make you lose sight of the objective.
-Uncle Paolo — Jessica Khoury

I bounce my knees, but I do not have restless leg syndrome. I did an interview, I don't even know who it was with, and they said I told them I have restless leg syndrome and it distracts me from my work. I do not have any syndrome. — Taylor Lautner

But the only thing that distracts me from my current situation is fantasizing about killing President Snow. — Suzanne Collins

I was never one for looking at beautiful scenery, and certainly not since 1933; it distracts from the more important and admittedly metropolitan business of keeping an eye out for the Gestapo, which, with my politics, is an ever-present dilemma. — Philip Kerr

A multitude of books distracts the mind. — Socrates

He looks toward the ocean, dark purple with the last rays of light. "My mom says we're all connected--people and plants and animals. We all know one another on the inside. It's what's on the outside that distracts. Our clothes, our words, our actions. Shark attacks. Gunshots. We spend our lives trying to find other people. Sometimes we get confused and turned around by the distractions." He smiles at me. "But we didn't. — Jenn Bennett

At its core, minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of everything that distracts us from — Joshua Becker

I cannot watch my own dailies, ever. I'm my worst critic. It distracts me. I can watch it when it's done, but I'm not the girl that wants to run back and look at the performance. — Eliza Dushku

If the great American people will only keep their temper, on both sides of the line, the troubles will come to an end, and the question which now distracts the country will be settled just as surely as all other difficulties of like character which have originated in this government have been adjusted. — Abraham Lincoln

Holy Mary Mother of God, what am I to do? There is always the easy way out, although I am loath to use it. I have no children, I do not watch television and I do not believe in God - all paths taken by mortals to make their lives easier. Children help us to defer the painful task of confronting ourselves, and grandchildren take over from them. Television distracts us from the onerous necessity of finding projects to construct in the vacuity of our frivolous lives: by beguiling our eyes, television releases our mind from the great work of making meaning. — Muriel Barbery

There's almost nothing that distracts you from your day-to-day problems more than a trip. You're totally consumed in the present, you've got new sense impressions, you've got all this stuff to digest. — Tom Freston

People who listen to them properly don't underestimate them. Unfortunately, there's so much about my career and me that distracts people from the actual content of most of my songs. — Madonna Ciccone

Prayer is an act of love; words are not needed. Even if sickness distracts from thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love. — Saint Teresa Of Avila

Funny thing about guilt: There's nothing so bad that you can't add a little guilt to it and make it worse; and there's nothing so good you can't add guilt to it and make it better. Guilt distracts us from a greater truth: we have an inherent ability to heal. We seem intent on living through even the worst heartbreak... How? ... Practice. — C. Jay Cox

Limitation is a good discipline because it discourages inappropriate generalization, which distracts attention from the profound, particular complexity that characterizes anything at all. — Marilynne Robinson

A really irritating thing when you're watching a film is if somebody's accent isn't bang-on - it distracts you from getting into the story because you're thinking: 'Where are they from?' — Rachel Hurd-Wood

The world attracts and distracts at the same time. Make sure you know the difference and go with that in mind. — Art Hochberg

When people learn to master their feelings, they can soon learn to master their reflections and thoughts in the degree requisite for attaining the objects they are seeking. But while they yield to a feeling or spirit that distracts their minds from a subject they wish to study and learn, so long they will never gain the mastery of their minds. — Brigham Young

It's helpful to have a handbag that's a bit crazy, or shoes that have kiwis on them or something, because it distracts. — Maisie Williams

Dear Ms. Dunne,
I was hoping that you could come to the school to discuss Katie's rapidly deteriorating behavior in class. Her attention span is short and she distracts other students by her note-passing. How does Wednesday after school sound? You can reach me at the school. You know the number.
Ms. Casey

To Katie,
What do you mean your mum just laughed?
From Toby

Ahern, Cecelia (2005-02-01). Love, Rosie (p. 99). Hachette Books. Kindle Edition. — Cecelia Ahern

It seems the older people get, the more shit they ignore. Or, like Dad, they pay attention to stuff that distracts them from the more important things that they're ignoring. — A.S. King

I can't emphasize this idea enough. Getting involved with your collaborator's problems almost always distracts you from your own. That can be tempting. That can be a relief. But it usually leads to disaster. — Twyla Tharp

The idea of "art for art's sake" is a recent Western cultural phenomenon that in some ways both distracts and diminishes the reality of human creative expressions. If we define art broadly, then it permeates virtually every aspect of our lives. All of us search for and attempt to create that which is aesthetically pleasing; thus, we are all "artists. — James Peoples

Poetry distracts me from going deeper over ... the edge. it is rough and shiny like black diamonds.it dazzles,it enhances,your everything. Each moment,every memory, you touch. — Emily H. Sturgill

Guna means strand, and in the Gita the gunas are described as the very fabric of existence, the veil that hides unity in a covering of diversity. Tamas is maya's power of concealment, the darkness or ignorance that hides unitive reality; rajas distracts and scatters awareness, turning it away from reality toward the diversity of the outside world. Thus the gunas are essentially born of the mind. When the mind's activity is stilled, we see life as it is. — Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa

Sometimes in conversation the sound of our own voice distracts us and misleads us into making assertions that in no way express our true opinions. — Friedrich Nietzsche

To add to truth distracts from it, — Alex Toth

Partying and having all of those pictures taken distracts from the work that I do. It's not why I started acting. I didn't get into acting to be written about. It kind of just happened - so I accept that it's my life. — Lindsay Lohan

To its critics, the study of theology distracts from real life. But, at its best, theology inspires and informs precisely the committed and caring ministry. — Alister E. McGrath

Attention can be trained very naturally, with affection, just as you train a puppy. When something distracts your attention, you say "Come back" and bring it back again. With a lot of training, you can teach your mind to come running back to you when you call, just like a friendly pup. — Eknath Easwaran

I realized, when I saw the forest burning, how fascinating the firelight is. It's beautiful, and people stare at it, don't they? It destroys things and kills people, but humans love it. Is it because they crave their own destruction, Sam? I want to understand your kind. I am going out into the wider world, and I must learn. But first things first. First, to escape this shell, this egg in which I have gestated, all eyes will be on the fire, all eyes blinded by the smoke, and when I walk out of here, out into your large world with its billions, no one will even see. It's the beauty of light, don't you see, Sam? It reveals, but it also distracts and blinds. It's even better than darkness. — Michael Grant

We know that material things don't offer contentment, but we still buy more-more of the props and gadgets our culture tells us we must have in order to be happy and "happening." Our addiction to consumption distracts us from seeing that we are disconnected from ourselves, from our truth and from one another. Any euphoria we gain from our material gains is fleeting at best. — Susan L. Taylor

What distracts me from my reality is bigfoot. They are my celebrities. — Megan Fox

You can get hooked on afterlife ideas just like a drug. The reason to avoid ideas about life after death isn't because they couldn't possibly be true. Maybe they could. How would I know? It's because ideas like that promote a kind of dreamy fantasy state that distracts us from seeing what our life is right now.
"The question doesn't fit the case."
Look at your life as it is right now and live it, right now. — Brad Warner

Never use an adverb to modify the verb 'said' ... he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. — Elmore Leonard

We live in a world of media overload and data smog, where everything distracts us from everything else. Yet underlying this noisy assault, our culture offers us nothing transcendent. No deeper meaning, no abiding hope. In my crisis, every facet of the contemporary world seemed part of a diabolical mechanism carefully designed to keep people from wondering about the real purpose of their endless frantic activity. — Daniel Pinchbeck

If rewards do not work, what does? I recommend that employers pay workers well and fairly and then do everything possible to help them forget about money. A preoccupation with money distracts everyone - employers and employees - from the issues that really matter. — Alfie Kohn

Winston Churchill once said, "If you want to destroy them, distract them." And that's exactly what our adversary does; he distracts us completely from the greater cause, which is to pull together so we might know Christ and make Him known. Second — Darlene Zschech

Always and everywhere, the only serious political issue is what the state should and should not do. All the rest distracts. — Llewellyn Rockwell

People like my voice and say I can sing, but I don't like microphones in front of my face: it distracts me. — Bernie Worrell

You see, painting has now become, or all art has now become completely a game, by which man distracts himself. What is fascinating actually is, that it's going to become much more difficult for the artist, because he must really deepen the game to become any good at all. — Francis Bacon

You know what is wrong about always searching for answers about something that happened in your past ? It keeps you from looking forward. It distracts you from what's in front of you, Ya. Your future. — Ika Natassa

The greatest gift is the passion for reading.
It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites,
it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind.
It is a moral illumination. — Elizabeth Hardwick

God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is the most loving thing. Anyone else who exalts himself distracts us from what we need, namely, God. — John Piper

Naming of things as they are, without embellishment, make approachable those afflictive emotions and heavy states that obscure the heart. We know that we can't let go of anything we don't accept, the noting brings us into the presence of that which often distracts us from the present. It allows the healing in. And as we observe the appearance of things, we more easily acknowledge their subsequent disappearance, and some come to an appreciation of impermanence. — Stephen Levine

Was Superstorm Sandy caused by greenhouse warming of the planet? In a word, no. Individual storms arise from specific conditions in the atmosphere. Since records have been kept, hurricanes have varied in number and intensity each season with cycles going up and coming down. The temptation to attribute any specific weather event to global warming distracts us from considering and adopting adaptive strategies, such as improving and expanding irrigation for agriculture and the water supply for cities, that will serve us well when climate changes inevitably arrives on our doorstep. — E. Kirsten Peters

I never look back darling. It distracts from the now. — Brad Bird

I find that I can't work and listen to radio - either I find I don't like it and it distracts me, or I do like it and I want to listen to it. — Quentin Blake

Life can't ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer's lover until death-- fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treacherous, constant." --Edna Ferber

"The great gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites. It gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination." --Elizabeth Hardwick — Cara Swann

Clock, he probably won't die in the jungle, so someone's going to have to kill him in battle. Because this is so repellent to think about, my mind frantically tries to change topics. But the only thing that distracts me from my current situation is fantasizing about killing President Snow. Not very pretty daydreams for a seventeen-year-old girl, I guess, but — Suzanne Collins

Negativity distracts you from your goal so do not let other people negativity becoming a hurdle in achieving your goal. — Pravin Agarwal

The love of talk distracts all the powers of our soul from God, and fills them with earthly objects and impressions, like a vessel of water that cannot be settled while you are continualy stirring the earthly particles from the bottom. — Elizabeth Ann Seton

Judging others is easy because it distracts us from the responsibility of judging ourselves. — Charles F. Glassman

Ambiguity distracts the conscious mind. — Franz Anton Mesmer II

I've always thought sleep was a wonderful invention. Not that being awake isn't nice too, of course. But when I get up in the morning, I think, boy, only fourteen more hours and I can be back to sleep again ... And I never dream, because it distracts my mind from pure sleeping ... — Anne Tyler

Anxiety over persecution tends to take precedence over every other issue. Continually being on the lookout for Christian persecution distracts us from concern about hunger, abuse, poverty, and the issues about which Jesus told his followers to be concerned. Jesus had a lot to say about the way his followers treated others. He talked about their care for the hungry and helpless. Never once though did he tell his disciples to fight for religious freedom or to stand up for what they believed. — Jason Wiedel

There's no reason to have a plan B because it distracts from plan A. — Will Smith

If you do wake up next to a naked corpse, you're going to be getting a lot of attention from the police and possibly the media, since you're now the prime suspect in what they perceive to be a fantastic sex crime. On the bright side, you won't have to worry about anyone suspecting you're a werewolf, since the intense interest generated by sexual murders often distracts from any suspicion of a werewolf's involvement. — Ritch Duncan

As a composer seeking to remain anonymous I am shy of confessing my musical activity. This is intelligible enough. For others it is their chief business, the occupation and aim of life. For me it is a relaxation, a pastime which distracts me from my principal business, my professorship. I love my profession and my science. I love the Academy and my pupils, male and female, because to direct the work of young people, one must be close to them. — Alexander Borodin

The focus of the entrepreneur must always be on exchanging products or services for money, and anything that distracts from that like actually running a business, should be avoided where possible. — John Winterson Richards

For whereas speaking distracts, silence and work collect the thoughts and strengthen the spirit. As soon therefore as a person understands what has been said to him for his good, there is not further need to hear or to discuss; but to set himself in earnest to practice what he has learnt with silence and attention, in humility, charity, and contempt of self. — San Juan De La Cruz

Chronic multitaskers "are suckers for irrelevancy," says Stanford communications professor Clifford Nass. "Everything distracts them." They can't ignore things, can't remember as well, and have weaker self-control. — Stephen L. Macknik

Hatred and anger are the greatest poison to the happiness of a good mind. There is, in the very feeling of those passions, something harsh, jarring, and convulsive, something that tears and distracts the breast, and is altogether destructive of that composure and tranquillity of mind which is so necessary to happiness, and which is best promoted by the contrary passions of gratitude and love. — Adam Smith

If cynicism and love lie at opposite ends of a spectrum, do we not sometimes fall in love in order to escape the debilitating cynicism to which we are prone? Is there not in every coup de foudre a certain willful exaggeration of the qualities of the beloved, an exaggeration which distracts us from our habitual pessimism and focuses our energies on someone in whom we can believe in a way we have never believed in ourselves? — Alain De Botton

It is not tricks of sense But the time's fright within me which distracts Least fancies into violence — Richard Wilbur

Most people come together through sexual attraction and then try to figure out if they're compatible. The sex distracts them, then they realize too late that their pieces don't fit together — James Patterson

She's pretty in a way that distracts me just like she did in the Skiz ring. No, pretty's not the right word. Beautiful. — Marie Lu

Ah, it's my longing for whom I might have been that distracts and torments me! — Fernando Pessoa

Worry is different from fear. If fear is like a raging fever, worry is a low-grade temperature. It nags at us, simmers in our souls, hovers in the back of our minds like a faint memory. We may fear certain realities, like death; we worry about vague possibilities. Worry distracts us more than paralyzes us. It is like a leaky faucet we never get around to fixing. — Gerald Lawson Sittser

The elevation of appearance over substance, of celebrity over character, of short term gains over lasting achievement displays a poverty of ambition. It distracts you from what's truly important. — Barack Obama

[W]hen nations crumble, they often crack along racial or ethnic lines, and there's no reason why it won't happen here, but since racial hatred is as barbaric as they come, I don't wish to live long enough to witness this catastrophe. From 1882 to 1968, white mobs lynched 539 blacks in Mississippi alone, the most in the entire nation, but now, there are white groups who keep tabs on the staggering number of black-on-white murders, maimings, rapes and recreational assaults. Seeing their share of the population decreasing relentlessly, they speak of a white genocide. As for the elites, though they don't welcome social unrest, since it's bad for business, they will benefit from increasing racial animosity since it distracts from the serial crimes they're inflicting on us all. — Linh Dinh

I know a lot of people don't listen to music when they're writing because it distracts them, but for me it's almost a way to get into the self-hypnotic state that I need to be in to write. — Dan Chaon

Seems like I can't stop the word vomit when I'm with her. There's just something about Ally that distracts me just enough to forget myself, beckoning my truth like a siren's call. I just want to tell her ... everything.
Maybe we were friends in a past life. Or lovers. — S.L. Jennings

Scarlett Johansson. I think people don't really realize how great of an actress that girl is. She's so beautiful and that distracts you from what she can do as an actor. — Demian Bichir

The signal is the truth. The noise is what distracts us from the truth. — Nate Silver

Claritypoint: A fear-based philosophy about life (seeing life as a testing center) can prevent you from seeing yourself and situations accurately.- A fear of failing skews your perspective and distracts you from learning and loving. — Kimberly Giles

The successful golfers - they're like astronauts or pilots. They have that demeanor that they can focus and stay within that one moment and nothing distracts them. That's not me. — Ray Romano

Temperamentally anxious people can have a hard time staying motivated, period, because their intense focus on their worries distracts them from their goals. — Winifred Gallagher

Solicitude for material things distracts the soul and divides it. The devil seizes the divided soul and drags it to hell. — Anthony

I don't like to eat when I watch films because it distracts me. Anything crunchy or in a wrapper is terrible. — Joshua Oppenheimer

What most of all enables a man to serve the public is not wealth, but content and independence; which, requiring no superfluity at home, distracts not the mind from the common good. — Plutarch

The biggest way I stay motivated is to run with a group of friends. Sometimes it's hard to get going by yourself, but if you have a plan and a meeting time, you know this run will happen for sure. It's a way to have fun - while also getting in a workout. Plus it distracts from pain, helps you fight fatigue, and gives you that extra push. — Allyson Felix

The reason we are so pleased to find other people's secrets is that it distracts public attention from our own. — Oscar Wilde

Turn off the computer. Often, an open computer screen distracts us from other activities. Our eye catches a glimpse of something and before you know it, we're back at the desk and surfing away. — James Chartrand

An occasion, catalyst, or tripwire?permits the poet to reach into herself and haul up whatever nugget of the human condition distracts her at the moment, something that can't be reached in any other way. — Diane Ackerman

Red lipstick is my armour - I feel it distracts from my hereditary dark circles and gives me an instant psychological lift, no matter what my mood is. — Liz Goldwyn

I love anything that involves the ocean. Swimming, snorkelling or surfing are all fun, which distracts from your mind that you are actually doing a workout. Being outdoors in the sun and the salt water is great for freeing your mind and feeling alive. — Samantha Stosur

The night creeps in by subtle degrees while a show of fierce colors attracts and distracts me. I look up, suddenly aware of remote lights scattered overhead. I gasp as the last streak of fire dies on the horizon, and I comprehend it all too late. That crafty, dark night has swallowed my world whole. — Richelle E. Goodrich

The idea that someone could, or would want to, experience uninterrupted happiness over a period of days, let alone years, is ludicrous.

Anyone who feels pleasant and bubbly all the time is either mentally disabled or hooked on crack.

Money, on the other hand, is steady. You can spend it, invest it or light a little bit on fire in an intern's ass. Either way, money gets to sleep over.

Money is a resource that makes it easier for you to find your purpose and achieve your goals, not because you are buying happiness, but because you are eliminating the desperation that drains happiness and distracts you from your purpose. — Ari Gold