Lewis Thomas Quotes

If you can present your case clearly and visually, anyone can understand it. No one has an attention span.

The horrible truth is we are linear beings; we can't multitask, and we shouldn't keep interrupting important connections to each other with the latest message coming in.

Still, I tune out the visual input when it is too distracting, mainly in conversations.

It's hard to watch something go on and be talking at the same time.

One of the problems of modern society, or the post-Internet age, is that there are so many things bombarding us that we could care about. I think it's more important than ever to really get clear and focus on what's worth caring about and what's just noise or distraction.

I have to always make sure I don't stay in one place and spend too much time one subject. I have my wife tell me [through an earpiece], "Come back! You're taking too long on that subject." I need to be reeled in.

The best way to make a long story short is to stop listening.

The mind is refrigerated by interruption; the thoughts are diverted from the principle subject; the reader is weary, he suspects not why; and at last throws away the book, which he has too diligently studied.

They made a three-hour 'Raw,' but two hours is about my time limit. I ain't got that kind of attention span.

I just don't think people listen. I mean, they can't listen to a whole album closely without checking their iPhone or wanting to skip to their favorite song, or putting something else on, practically. That's why the zone out is a good thing.

Thinking is a momentary dismissal of irrelevancies.

The writer cannot make the seas of distraction stand still, but he [or she] can at times come between the madly distracted and the distractions.

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

If I go and try to watch a movie by myself I'll be completely transfixed the whole time, concentrating one hundred percent. But if I'm with another person on a date or something, within two minutes I'll be like 'This is rubbish, this is rubbish. We should leave and do something else.' I don't really know why.

We are tied down to a language which makes up in obscurity what it lacks in style.

My concentration and focus level tends to go down sometimes when I'm in a bad mood.

I think talent has a huge amount to do with concentration, concentration rather than the athletic ability of your neurons. If you can concentrate on an esoteric piece of math, how can you think about the rest of your life? That's why people can leave their car keys in the gutter; they're in the midst of obsession and concentration.

Simplicity is ultimately a matter of focus.

There is great power in focusing on what you want..... The person who tries to do everything accomplishes nothing. Most people try to be all things to everyone. And so they end up being nothing to anyone. Confucius nailed the point: "Person who chases two rabbits catches neither."

Oh, I don’t know. That digression business got on my nerves. I don’t know. The trouble with me is, I like it when somebody digresses. It’s more interesting and all.

I have a terrible attention span, so if something can keep my attention, I know that that's at least a great start.

Do not be distracted from what we face.

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

Like Ron Lorman's always sayin', "Na-na-na-na-na," you know what I mean? I don't need that in the studio.

We know, from ordinary life, that we are not able to direct our attention perfectly steadily and uniformly to one and the same object... At times the attention turns towards the object most intensely, and at times the energy flags.