Octavio Paz Quotes

Distraction serves evil more than any other mental state.

All profound distraction opens certain doors. You have to allow yourself to be distracted when you are unable to concentrate.

These distraction-oholics. These focus-ophobics.

I sometimes worry about my short attention span, but not for long.

Distracted from distraction by distraction

I defy any woman who is pregnant and trying to concentrate really hard not to feel distracted.

I'm easily distracted by other things in the world around me.

I don't know if I'm attention deficit, but I certainly am easily distracted by other things.

Some people think they are concentrating when they're merely worrying.

I have the attention span of a mosquito from multitasking and all the things that have affected my poor little brain.

The only factor becoming scarce in a world of abundance is human attention.

I am aware, as everybody has to be, that there's more competition for one's attention nowadays.

We used to think that you could pay attention to five to nine things at a time. We now know that's not true. That's a crazy overestimate. The conscious mind can attend to about three things at once. Trying to juggle any more than that, and you're going to lose some brainpower.

I am constantly distracted by my own brain when I've completed a paragraph, realized I don't know what comes next, and start opening a browser tab without even realizing it.

When you let go of your attention for a little while, do not think you may recover it whenever you please.

Concentration, itself, is nothing but a matter of control of the attention! Learn to fix your attention on a given subject, at will, for whatever length of time you choose, and you will have learned the secret passage-way to power and plenty! This is concentration!

Multitasking divides your attention and leads to confusion and weakened focus.

In the future, the great division will be between those who have trained themselves to handle these complexities and those who are overwhelmed by them -- those who can acquire skills and discipline their minds and those who are irrevocably distracted by all the media around them and can enver focus enough to learn.

The mind that engages in subjects of too great variety becomes confused and weakened.

One of the biggest things I struggle with in life is not being present. I'm worried about my future or I'm dwelling on my past, and I'm wondering why I'm not feeling so great right now, but it's because I'm everywhere else, besides what is currently happening in front of me.

It's hard to get people to focus on one idea.

What are you thinking? Nothing. I mean...a lot of things. Kind of all at once.

I'm not sure if I could tell the difference—between just staring into space and thinking. We're usually thinking all the time, aren't we? Not that we live in order to think, but the opposite isn't true either—that we think in order to live. I believe, contrary to Descartes, that we sometimes think in order not to be. Staring into space might unintentionally have the opposite effect.

My theory is that the world is a difficult place to live in and distraction is the name of the game.

The distracted person, too, can form habits.