Looking at scenes of nature, for even a short while, can help us become more insightful, more creative, and more productive.

But when we observe, we are forced to pay attention. We have to move from passive absorption to active awareness. We have to engage.

When we are forced to do multiple things at once, not only do we perform worse on all of them but our memory decreases and our general well-being suffers a palpable hit.

Holmes serves as an ideal model of how we can learn to see and think better.

As children, we are remarkably aware. We absorb and process information at a speed that we'll never again come close to achieving... we are learning about our world and its possibilities.

How many thoughts float in and out of your head without your stopping to identify them? How many ideas and insights have escaped because you forgot to pay attention?

the most powerful mind is the quiet mind. It is the mind that is present, reflective, mindful of its thoughts and its state. It doesn't often multitask, and when it does, it does so with a purpose.

In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants and the other is getting it.

It means we're looking one way, while following another. We're for one side and also the other. We mean what we say, but our intentions are different.

My grandparents, like many genocide survivors, took most of their stories to their graves.

I just want to be able to keep my house and pay for my son's school tuition in Los Angeles.

You know how sometimes you lie in bed at night and think, “What if the law of gravity just wears out and lets go and I drift into space?” Does that ever make you anxious?

No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.

Real Christians do not carry their religion, their religion carries them. It is not weight, it is wings.

Once you get on the ship, everything is fine. Once you get on land, everything is not so fine.

Never, ever, take a "no" from someone who's not empowered to give you a "yes" in the first place.

If you are rich, you have lovely cars, and jars full of flowers, and books in rows, and a wireless, and the best sort of gramophone and meringues for supper.