99 Quotes About Concentration

INTEREST. Here is the key to the whole thing. If and when you are truly interested in what you are doing, or are about to do, then you will center your attention on it with little or no effort, and almost irrespective of the attendant conditions. Ralph Alfred Habas

In those days a boy on the classical side officially did almost nothing but classics. I think this was wise; the greatest service we can to education today is to teach few subjects. No one has time to do more than a very few things well before he is twenty, and when we force a boy to be a mediocrity in a dozen subjects we destroy his standards, perhaps for life. C.s. Lewis

Nothing, save the hangman's noose, concentrates the mind like piles of cash. Tim Wu

It's as if some bored ethereal being is fiddling with the remote control to his imagination, clicking channel after channel without finding anything to capture his interest for very long. C. Robert Cargill

Normally, we do not so much look at things as overlook them. Alan W. Watts

My brain I'll prove the female to my soul; my soul the father: and these two beget a generation of still-breeding thoughts, and these same thoughts people this little world. William Shakespeare

Concentrate on the here and now. The future can take care of itself. Christopher G. Nuttall

At any rate, during the few hours when the depressive state itself eased off long enough to permit the luxury of concentration, I had recently filled this vacuum with fairly extensive reading and I had absorbed many fascinating and troubling facts William Styron

So many people concentrate on looks, but the invisible is sacred Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

Just as there’s usually a space or interval between people passing on the street, even if it sometimes seems very small, a space also exists between thoughts. In your meditation, see if you can perceive this gap between thoughts. What is it, and does it belong to the realm of time? If it does not, then it’s unborn and undying, beyond all conditioning, which is a psychological carry-over from the past to the present. Whatever thoughts or internal conflicts come up–do nothing. Do not try to force them to cease or change. And don’t “do nothing” to still the mind, quiet fears, or resolve conflicts–all of this is doing something. It only leads to more struggling and prevents you from seeing the actual nature of thought and internal conflict. Genuine attention has no motive. This observation or listening doesn’t involve effort. Effort merely distracts you from what’s taking place in the instant. A kind of concentration exists that’s not forced. We’ve all experienced listening or paying attention to something we truly enjoyed. At that moment, was effort required for concentration to take place?. H.E. Davey

Meditation is a state, often defined as deep dreamless sleep awake. But, in the same way that you cannot sleep on demand, you cannot meditate on demand–that is, you can’t reach the state instantly in the same way that you can raise your right hand. The practices preceding meditation are relaxation, stillness and mental focus. Those are all things you can do. They are the preparation. Then, if you the circumstances are right, you can transition from the waking to the meditative state. Gudjon Bergmann

Repose is not a discipline or practice. To experience Repose, you do not need to adhere to any specific philosophy or become proficient in any technique. There is no learning curve and no wrong way to be in Repose. Victor Shamas

Meditation is not an act that has to be done separately or to be achieved in isolation of the forests. It is a quality, which continuously gets enhanced with the habit of doing even the smallest of the tasks with full concentration. Deep Trivedi

Concentration is the doorway through which the meditative state becomes available. Gudjon Bergmann

Concentration is… a relaxed mental state, where the stream of consciousness flows in a single direction, either focusing on a phrase or mental picture, or alternately, a state in which the mind is alert and aware. Gudjon Bergmann

Whether one is remaining alert (mindfulness), focusing on a single thought or phrase (mantra), or mentally exploring ones inner world (visualization), all are one form of concentration or another. Gudjon Bergmann

The conscious mind is intended as a focusing tool, not a storing place. Matthew Perman

When the zone calls, you must listen. You never know how long being in the zone lasts. It is a cardinal rule - you must take advantage of every second that you are in the zone. JohnA Passaro

The erotic state — again, a mixture of concentration and spontaneity — is a hypnoidal state, probably the most powerful kind that we are capable of experiencing, and it is in this condition that unexpected regions of the self are revealed, as the majority of people know from experience. Peter Redgrove

Concentration comes out of a combination of confidence and hunger. Arnold Palmer

The power to concentrate was the most important thing. Living without this power would be like opening one’s eyes without seeing anything. Haruki Murakami

He has neither what I call the outward vision (seeing details all around you what is called an observant person) nor the inner vision--concentration, the focusing of the mind on one object. He has a purposefully limited vision. He sees only what blends and harmonises with the bent of his mind. Agatha Christie

When you fully focus your mind, you make others attracted to you. Toba Beta

Observe her when she has some knitting, or some other woman's work in hand, and sits the image of peace, calmly intent on her needles and her silk, some discussion meantime going on around her, in the course of which peculiarities of character are being developed, or important interests canvassed; she takes no part in int; her humble, feminine mind is wholl with her knitting; none of her features move; she neither presumes to smile approval, nor frown disapprobation; her little hands assiduously ply their unpretending task; if she can only get this purse finished, or this bonnet-grec completed, it is enough for her. Unknown

..Learn to concentrate, to give all your attention to the thing at hand, and then to be able to put it aside and go on to the next thing without confusion. My husband said that being President of the United States meant that you saw more kinds of people, took up more subjects, and learn more about a variety of things than anyone else. But it required complete concentration on the person you were with and on what he was saying. When that person left the room, you pulled down a shade in your mind, and you were ready, with your attention free, for what the next person had to say. You might have to shift from banking to forestry, but each subject had the attention and concentration it required and each, in turn, was put in the back of the mind, ready to be called upon when needed. Eleanor Roosevelt

The secret of concentration is to shut down the other windows. Amit Ray

Like all great readers, he could create for himself a "wall of stillness". Philip Zaleski

The aging Adams delightedly describes being surrounded by books on so many different subjects that interested him as "baits on fishhooks". Paul C. Nagel

MAKE SUCCESS HAPPENSuccess is like a camera. Only focus on what is most important. Ignore trivial details. Concentrate on your main goal image for success. Develop your pictures. If they don't turn out, don't give up. Take more shots at it. Always be persistent. Focus on making success clearly happen. Mark LaMoure

Tengo had a gift for such work. He was a born technician, possessing both the intense concentration of a bird sailing through the air in search of prey and the patience of a donkey hauling water, playing always by the rules of the game. Haruki Murakami

Something amazing happens when the rest of the world is sleeping. I am glued to my chair. I forget that I ever wanted to do anything but write. The crowded city, the crowded apartment, and the crowded calendar suddenly seem spacious. Three or four hours pass in a moment; I have no idea what time it is, because I never check the clock. If I chose to listen, I could hear the swish of taxis bound for downtown bars or the soft saxophone riffs that drift from a neighbor's window, but nothing gets through. I am suspended in a sensory deprivation tank, and the very lack of sensation is delicious. . Anne Fadiman

To practice with an end in view is to have one eye on the practice and the other on the end, which is lack of concentration, lack of sincerity. Alan W. Watts

Religion demands above all the concentration of the spirit...it is a thrusting into the unity of all things so as to come to grips in the hiddenness of the soul with the unity of the One from Whom it all comes. Abraham Kuyper

The two seem, at first glance, to be opposed, but when you have advanced a little in both, you find that concentration learned in Yoga is of immense use in attaining the mental powers necessary in Magick; on the other hand, the discipline of Magick is of the greatest service in Yoga. Aleister Crowley

The ability to concentrate and to use your time well is everything. Lee Lacocca

It is only when I dally with what I am about look back and aside instead of keeping my eyes straight forward that I feel these cold sinkings of the heart. Sir Walter Scott

A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective. Andre Gide

Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn't look up. Well maybe once. Isaac Asimov

To be able to concentrate for a considerable time is essential to difficult achievement. Bertrand Russell

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

If you don't concentrate you'll end up on your rear. Tai Babilonia

If I have ever made any valuable discoveries it has been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent. Isaac Newton

For him who has no concentration there is no tranquility. Bhagaved Gita

The secret to success in any human endeavor is total concentration. Kurt Vonnegut

The secret of concentration is the secret of self-discovery. You reach inside yourself to discover your personal resources and what it takes to match them to the challenge. Arnold Palmer

Beware of dissipating your powers strive constantly to concentrate them. Johann Von Goethe

One arrow does not bring down two birds. Turkish Proverb

No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused dedicated disciplined. Harry Emerson Fosdick

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of everything. Samuel Johnson

Concentrate your energies your thoughts and your capital.... The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket. Andrew Carnegie

One man two loves. No good ever comes of that. Euripides

One cannot both feast and become rich. Ashanti Proverb

The perplexity of life arises from there being too many interesting things in it for us to be interested properly in any of them. G. K. Chesterton

No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time. Henry Kissinger

The field of consciousness is tiny. It accepts only one problem at a time. Antoine De SaintExupery

To do two things at once is to do neither. Publilius Syrus

I like to laugh but on the court it is my work. I try to smile but it is so difficult. I concentrate on the ball not on my face. Steffi Graf

Successful minds work like a gimlet to a single point. Christian Bovee

A bird can roost but on one branch. A mouse can drink no more than its fill from a river. Chinese Proverb

Each man is capable of doing one thing well. If he attempts several he will fail to achieve distinction in any. Plato

This one thing I do ... I press toward the mark. Bible

All good is gained by those whose thought and life are kept pointed close to one main thing not scattered abroad upon a thousand. Stephen McKenna

The first law of success ... is concentration: to bend all the energies to one point and to go directly to that point looking neither to the right nor the left. William Matthews

Give me a man who says this one thing I do and not these fifty things I dabble in. Dwight L. Moody

A single idea if it is right saves us the labor of an infinity of experiences. Jacques Maritain

One thought driven home is better than three left on base. James Liter

Purity of heart is to will one thing. Soren Kierkegaard

A man should remove not only unnecessary acts but also unnecessary thoughts for then superfluous activity will not follow. Marcus Aurelius

No man will swim ashore and take his baggage with him. Marcus Annaeus Seneca

Many people who wonder why they don't amount to more than they do have good stuff in them and are energetic persevering and have ample opportunities. It is all a case of trimming the useless branches and throwing the whole force of power into the development of something that counts. Walter J. Johnston

A great man is one who seizes the vital issue in a complex question what we might call the jugular vein of the whole organism and spends his energies upon that. Joseph Rickaby

While the work or play is on ... don't constantly feel you ought to be doing the other. Franklin P. Adams

When one is learning one should not think of play and when one is at play one should not think of learning. Lord Chesterfield

The immature mind hops from one thing to another the mature mind seeks to follow through. Harry A. Overstreet

If you want to hit a bird on the wing you must have all your will in focus you must not be thinking about yourself and equally you must not be thinking about your neighbor: you must be living in your eye on that bird. Every achievement is a bird on the wing. Oliver Wendell Holmes

The difference in men does not lie in the size of their hands nor in the perfection of their bodies but in this one sublime ability of concentration: to throw the weight with the blow to live an eternity in an hour. Elbert Hubbard

I go at what I am about as if there was nothing else in the world for the time being. Charles Lingsley

Choice of attention to pay attention to this and ignore that is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. W. H. Auden

Concentration is everything. On the day I'm performing I don't hear anything anyone says to me. Luciano Pavarotti

The real essence of work is concentrated energy. Walter Bagehot

You can't ring the bells and at the same time walk in the procession. Spanish Proverb

I've learned ruthless concentration. I can write under any circumstances ... street noises loud talk music you name it. Sylvia Porter

The effectiveness of work increases according to geometrical progression if there are no interruptions. Andre Maurois

Other people's interruptions of your work are relatively insignificant compared with the countless times you interrupt yourself. Brendan Francis

If you direct your whole thought to work itself none of the things which invade eyes or ears will reach the mind. Quintilian

A full mind is an empty baseball bat. Branch Rickey

There is time enough for everything in the course of the day if you do but one thing at once but there is not time enough in the year if you will do two things at a time. Lord Chesterfield

Become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid. Lady Bird Johnson

Attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. Tyron Edwards

I can't concentrate on golf or bowling. Those bowling pins aren't going to hurt me. I can concentrate in the ring because someone is trying to kill me. Carmen Basilio

When I come into a game in the bottom of the ninth bases loaded no one out and a one-run lead ... it takes people off my mind. Tug McGraw

Concentrate on finding your goal then concentrate on reaching it. Colonel Michael Friedman

Those who set out to serve both God and Mammon soon discover that there is no God. Logan Pearsall Smith

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight it concentrates his mind wonderfully. Samuel Johnson

She was dark-haired, fierce; she wore two drop earrings made of crystal; her face was a pure oval tickled with dimples; her skin was golden; and her laugh was like a fire in the night. But on her face you could also read the concentration of a soul whose life is entirely inward, and a mischievous gravity which acquires a silver patina with age. Muriel Barbery