Cognitive Focus Quotes

Knowing "why" (an idea) is more important than learning "what" (the fact).

Man's great misfortune is that he has no organ, no kind of eyelid or brake, to mask or block a thought, or all thought, when he wants to.

The eyes see not what is before them when the mind is intent on other matters.

The quality of our attention determines our experience.

If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics.

It's all about where your mind's at

Perhaps it is even more important to know what one should not think about than what one should think about.

I want to reach your mind - where is it currently located?

The reason I really started running was for meditative purposes. I would pick some problem to have in my head while running.

What you hear depends on how you focus your ear. We're not talking about inventing a new language, but rather inventing new perceptions of existing languages.

The person with a plan, a picture, will go after thoughts that add value to their thinking.

Dirac politely refused Robert's [Robert Oppenheimer] two proffered books: reading books, the Cambridge theoretician announced gravely, "interfered with thought."

Experience has taught me, when I am shaving of a morning, to keep watch over my thoughts, because, if a line of poetry strays into my memory, my skin bristles so that the razor ceases to act.

If I just concentrate I can walk into memory's store and find the right shelf with the right film and disappear into it.

I don't really listen to music when I work. I really have to focus on one thing at a time. I like a lot of quiet and peace when I'm working or when I'm thinking or when I'm reading.

We can be more or less conscious when you create grades of focus on a subject that is flowing in our stream of consciousness.

Asking a question is the simplest way of focusing thinking...asking the right question may be the most important part of thinking.

don't stop to think of the words when you do stop, just stop to think of the picture better-and let your mind off yourself in this work.

The faculty of attention has utterly vanished from the Anglo-Saxon mind, extinguished at its source by the big bayad?re of journalism, of the newspaper and the picture magazine which keeps screaming, "Look at me." Illustrations, loud simplifications... bill poster advertising ? only these stand a chance.

The habit of spending nearly every waking moment lost in thought leaves us at the mercy of whatever our thoughts happen to be. Meditation is a way of breaking this spell.

Survival lies in sanity, and sanity lies in paying attention...the capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.

When anything important has to be written ... I think your hand concentrates for you.

I've got rid of the ADD, but I do find it hard to concentrate sometimes.

The awareness of imagery is part of living... a life which derives its power from within itself will focus on the perception... of images.

When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.