George Combe Quotes

If there be anything that can be called genius, it consists chiefly in ability to give that attention to a subject which keeps it steadily in the mind, till we have surveyed it accurately on all sides.

It’s very difficult to stay alert indefinitely.

There's people who can, like, dive into material for hours and hours and hours and work on one tiny little specific thing without getting bored of it. Learning how to do that was, like, very useful.

The development of the faculty of attention forms the real object and almost the sole interest of studies.

The first essential for the child’s development is concentration. The child who concentrates is immensely happy.

Open office plans, cell phones, constant notifications: these are all things that fight against sustained attention on a task. For some people and some tasks, that doesn’t matter. But for a lot of important work, it matters a lot.

We could be happy if the air was as pure as beer.

I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found.

The ability to focus on a single task for an extended period is a talent that’s underappreciated - especially by extroverts, who continue to exercise an unhealthy hegemony over most workplaces.

I've heard people say that [I have a short attention span]. I don't feel I do, because when I'm interested in something I'll stay in focus as long as it is necessary... If you get off on something I'm not very interested in, it's very easy for me to block it out. It's easy for me to block things out.

The ability to focus attention on important things is a defining characteristic of intelligence.

The feeling of it to my lungs was not sensibly different from that of common air; but I fancied that my breast felt peculiarly light and easy for some time afterwards. Who can tell but that, in time, this pure air may become a fashionable article in luxury. Hitherto only two mice and myself have had the privilege of breathing it.

One should not go into churches if one wants to breathe pure air.

As soon as children find something that interests them they lose their instability and learn to concentrate.

The ability to concentrate and to use your time well is everything if you want to succeed in business--or almost anywhere else for that matter.

An addiction to distraction is the end of your creative production.

Most of us can easily do two things at once; what's all but impossible is to do one thing at once.

I did not succeed in life by intelligence. I succeeded because I have a long attention span.

If the regular length of a shot is increased, one becomes bored, but if you keep on making it longer, a new quality emerges, a special intensity of attention.' At first there can be a friction between our expectations of time and Tarkovsky-time and this friction is increasing in the twenty-first century as we move further and further away from Tarkovsky-time towards moron-time in which nothing can last—and no one can concentrate on anything—for longer than about two seconds.

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

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.

Please leave the window open.

The more the capacity to concentrate is developed, the more often the profound tranquility in work is achieved, then the clearer will be the manifestation of discipline within the child.

The advantage of pure, and the disadvantage of impure air are experienced each time we breathe, and all who understand the causes of disease know that an impure atmosphere is most unfavourable to the enjoyment of health, and an efficient cause to shorten human existence within the natural life of man. It is therefore most desirable that decisive measures should be devised and generally adopted to ensure to all a pure atmosphere, in which to live during their lives.

This is the great luxury of not working: the moment you read a book that has nothing to do with work, you know you're really relaxed. And I have a sh*t attention span. I can't concentrate for more than five minutes.