John Henry Newman Quotes

Sometimes you have to park things you're not happy with, because there are more important things to be done.

One must say no to some opportunities to open the possibilities of others.

You want to do a few things really well because you want to come out with a product that is fully baked, even though it may be lacking in a few features or whatever, rather than the one that's all-achieving but not doing anything too well.

I don't want to abandon one work for the other, and I don't think I need to sacrifice anything to put my all into either one of them.

When I write, the story is always uppermost in my mind, and I feel that everything must be sacrificed to it. All elegant passages, all the curious details, all the so-called beautiful writing - if they are not truly relevant to what I am trying to say, then they have to go.

Acting and recording an album at the same time, that's not my sport. I could write a movie when my attention was paid to that. But I'm good at one thing at a time.

You can have it all, but not all at once.

I sometimes think less is more. If you cut yourself in too many places, it is hard to execute.

Sometimes expanding your game isn't better. Sometimes shrinking your game is a little bit better and really get to the things you do well.

You can't put as much into one thing as you want, and I felt like I was shortchanging football a little bit by giving school so much time.

When I started really playing music, I pretty much quit sports. I quit everything.

In an effort to devote more time, energy and focus to fewer projects, I've had to make some tough decisions, and one such decision was 'retiring' from 'Speakeasy.'

It took me a long time to figure out that I didn't have to do everything, that it was actually a lot more helpful if I did a couple things really, really well than a whole bunch of things really badly, or nothing at all, because the whole thing was overwhelming.

I learned the value of focus. I learned it is better to do one product well than two products in a mediocre way.

He who is wise puts aside all claims which may dissipate his attention, and confining himself to one branch excels in that.

The trouble with a great many men is that they spread themselves out over too much ground. They fail in everything. If they would only put their life into one channel, and keep it in, they would accomplish something. They make no impression because they do a little work here and a little work there....Lay yourselves on the altar of God, and then concentrate on some one work.

... and you can only have 2 or 3 things everyday, because everything else will just come at you; you know fires in a day.

There is little to be gained by seeking after the mysteries, for there is hardly time in a lifetime to master the plain and precious things.

One who is in search of knowledge should give up the search of pleasure and the one who is in search of pleasure should give up the search of knowledge.

There is another ground of hope that must not be omitted. Let men but think over their infinite expenditure of understanding, time, and means on matters and pursuits of far less use and value; whereof, if but a small part were directed to sound and solid studies, there is no difficulty that might not be overcome.

There are too many ideas and things and people. Too many directions to go. I was starting to believe the reason it matters to care passionately about something, is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size.

Somehow, something is always suffering. Someone is always losing out somehow. If you pick one kid up, you're not picking the other one up. You just try to minimize those small let-downs because, in a way, life is a series of let-downs from everyone, all the time. We don't mean it, but it happens. So, I just try to minimize that and spread them wide.

The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

Reality offers us such wealth that we must cut some of it out on the spot, simplify. The question is, do we always cut out what we should?

A man must be able to cut a knot, for everything cannot be untied; he must know how to disengage what is essential from the detail in which it is enwrapped, for everything cannot be equally considered; in a word, he must be able to simplify his duties, his business and his life.