Divert Thinking Quotes & Sayings

I was flying out to Connecticut for the express purpose of breaking up with my boyfriend and I bought this set of three paperbacks to read on the plane and by the time I got to New Haven I was so worried about Frodo and Sam that I said to my boyfriend, "It's awful. They're trying to sneak into Mordor and the Ringwraiths are after them and I don't trust Gollum and ... " and I completely forgot to break up with him. And, as of yesterday, we've been married thirty-nine years. — Connie Willis

As with the mountains, there'd been no deserts where I grew up, and though I'd gone on day hikes in a couple of them, I didn't really understand what deserts were. I'd taken them to be dry, hot, and sandy places full of snakes, scorpions, and cactuses. They were not that. They were that and also a bunch of other things. They were layered and complex and inexplicable and analogous to nothing. My new existence was beyond analogy, I realized on that second day on the trail. I was in entirely new terrain. — Cheryl Strayed

What should worry us is not the number of people who oppose us, but how good their reasons are for doing so. We should therefore divert our attention away from the presence of unpopularity to the explanations for it. It may be frightening to hear that a high proportion of a community holds us to be wrong, but before abandoning our position, we should consider the method by which their conclusions have been reached. It is the soundness of their method of thinking that should determine the weight we give to their disapproval. We seem afflicted by the opposite tendency: to listen to everyone, to be upset by every unkind word and sarcastic observation. We fail to ask ourselves the cardinal and most consoling question: on what basis has this dark censure been made? We treat with equal seriousness the objections of the critic who has thought rigorously and honestly and those of the critic who has acted out of misanthropy and envy. — Alain De Botton

He that loves a book will never want a [close] friend,
a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter.
By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently
divert and pleasantly entertain himself,
as in all weathers, as in all fortunes. — Isaac Barrow

If you are strong enough, there are no precedents. — F Scott Fitzgerald

As a leader, if you can no longer inspire your people it is time to step aside and let someone else take the lead — Thomas Narofsky

Every experience has its element of magic. — Hermann Hesse

Fate rushes down upon us! The time drags and the days plod past, lulling us into thinking that the doom we fear will always so delay. Then, abruptly, the dark days we have all predicted are upon us, and the time when we could have turned dire fate aside has passed. How old must I be before I learn? There is no time; there is never any time. Tomorrow may never come, but todays are linked inexorably in a chain, and now is always the only time we have to divert disaster. — Robin Hobb

We spend our entire lives thinking about death. Without that project to divert us, I expect we would all be dreadfully bored. We would have nothing to evade, and nothing to forestall, and nothing to wonder about. Time would have no consequence. — Eleanor Catton

Today I will not be tempted to wander the byroads of pain, but rather I will set my feet upon the path of joy and peace. May the spirit of God protect my mind from any forces of fear that would divert my thinking. — Marianne Williamson

Don't you think it would be better to legalize victimless crimes like drugs & prostitution & divert the resources to more important things like the rapes & assaults & things like that? — Larry King

Anytime someone says we're channelling 1960s, I'm like, I'm in, I love it. — Lindsay Ellingson

If you are supposed to be villainous and have some sort of agenda, I like the idea of delivering that kind of character in a perfectly well-mannered way. — Bill Nighy

You're going to give up everything you've established here - the stability of your job, your friends, the option of a normal relationship with a man you can count on who will make sure your happiness comes first. And you're going to do that for some flyboy kid who wouldn't commit to you in the first place. You'll end up sorry. Unhappy and full of regrets. He let you down before and he'll let you down again." Ah. — Robyn Carr

It's great to tell people you have your own show, but that's where the fun stops. — David Spade

With your silhouette when the sunlight dims
Into your eyes where the moonlight swims,
And your match-book songs and your gypsy hymns,
Who among them would try to impress you?
-Bob Dylan, "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" (1966) — Bob Dylan

I'm much more creative when I've actually taken care of myself. — Arianna Huffington