113 Focus Quotes For Inspiration

In our fast-paced world brimming with distractions, maintaining focus can seem like an elusive feat. Sometimes, all it takes is a few powerful words to center our thoughts and reignite our drive. That's why we've compiled this carefully curated list of the top 113 focus quotes, designed to inspire and guide you in your pursuit of unwavering concentration. Whether you're seeking the clarity to complete a crucial project or the determination to chase your dreams, these nuggets of wisdom are sure to provide the motivation you need to stay on track. Dive in and let these insights help you channel your energy and achieve your greatest aspirations.

1. “My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: When you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.” - Elmore Leonard

2. “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

3. “... one flaw throws the loveliness of [everything else] into focus. I remember reading that Shakers deliberately introduced a mistake into the things they made, to show that man shouldn't aspire to the perfection of God. Flawed can be more perfect than perfection.” - Gretchen Rubin

4. “Instead of focusing on how much you can accomplish, focus on how much you can absolutely love what you’re doing.” - Leo Babauta

5. “When you fully focus your mind,you make others attracted to you.” - Toba Beta

6. “Inspiration is the windfall from hard work and focus. Muses are too unreliable to keep on the payroll.” - Helen Hanson

7. “I guess we speak pretty loosely, don't we, about looking forward to the Ashes and all that—and we are, but it's not with both eyes. We've got one eye on that and one eye on what we need to get in place to make sure we're the best team we can be for November.” - Ricky Ponting

8. “Once out of your cradle, you don't focus on the world in the abstract, perceiving things for the first time, but in synchrony with your accumulated knowledge, which enriches and helps define your experience, as well as ensuring its uniqueness.” - Winifred Gallagher

9. “Consciousness, which is the "reflective" element of Norman's conceptual brain, handles the "higher" functions at the metaphorical tip of the very top of that complicated organ. Because consciousness pays a lot of attention to your thoughts, you tend to identify it with cognition. However, if you try to figure out exactly how you run your business or care for your family, you soon realize that you can't grasp that process just by thinking about it. As Norman puts it, "Consciousness also has a qualitative, sensory feel. If I say, 'I'm afraid,' it's not just my mind talking. My stomach also knots up.” - Winifred Gallagher

10. “this observation leads Rozin to a stunning conclusion: "Disgust is the basic emotion of civilization.” - Winifred Gallagher

11. “Among these temperamentally unhappy campers are "reactant" personalities, who focus on what they often wrongly perceive as others' attempts to control them. In one experiment, some of these touchy individuals were asked to think of two people they knew: a bossy sort who advocated hard work and a mellow type who preached la dolce vita. Then, one of the names was flashed before the subjects too briefly to register in their conscious awareness. Next, the subjects were given a task to perform. Those who had been exposed to the hard-driving name performed markedly worse than those exposed to the easygoing name. Even this weak, subliminal attention to an emotional cue that suggested control was enough to get their reactant backs up and cause them to act to their own disadvantage. All relationships involve give-and-take and cooperation, so a person who habitually attends to ordinary requests or suggestions like a bull to a red flag is in for big trouble in both home and workplace.” - Winifred Gallagher

12. “Where visual artists are concerned, the Baroque sculptor and architect Bernini and the painter and sculptor Picasso were clearly adept at both experiential and instrumental attending, says Tellegen, as is the modern architect Frank Gehry. Choosing a literary example, he says that F. Scott Fitzgerald once admitted to "wrapping one of his romantic flings in cellophane" for later artistic use and notes that "this kind of heartless but honest professionalism is not uncommon among creative people.” - Winifred Gallagher

13. “In a variation on James's recipe for interesting experience--the familiar leavened by the novel--Hobbs's "art of choosing difficulties" requires selecting projects that are "just manageable." If an activity is too easy, you lose focus and get bored. If it's too hard, you become anxious, overwhelmed, and unable to concentrate. Tellingly, one group is distinguished by its zeal for the kind of work that requires you to give it all you've got: high achievers particularly relish taking on risky projects that have only a 50/50 chance of success.” - Winifred Gallagher

14. “Over time, a commitment to challenging, focused work and leisure produces not only better daily experience, but also a more complex, interesting person: the long-range benefit of the focused life. As Hobbs put it, the secret of fulfillment is "to choose trouble for oneself in the direction of what one would like to become.” - Winifred Gallagher

15. “Because you actually might not know what activities truly engage your attention and satisfy you, he says, it can be helpful to keep a diary of what you do all day and how you feel while doing it. Then, try to do more of what's rewarding, even if it takes an effort, and less of what isn't. Where optimal experience is concerned, he says, "'I just don't have the time' often means 'I just don't have the self-discipline.” - Winifred Gallagher

16. “If you really want to focus on something, says Castellanos, the optimum amount of time to spend on it is ninety minutes. "Then change tasks. And watch out for interruptions once you're really concentrating, because it will take you twenty minutes to recover.” - Winifred Gallagher

17. “People who are diagnosed as having "generalized anxiety disorder" are afflicted by three major problems that many of us experience to a lesser extent from time to time. First and foremost, says Rapgay, the natural human inclination to focus on threats and bad news is strongly amplified in them, so that even significant positive events get suppressed. An inflexible mentality and tendency toward excessive verbalizing make therapeutic intervention a further challenge.” - Winifred Gallagher

18. “I don't judge people. It blurs out the center of my attention,my focus, myself.” - Toba Beta [Betelgeuse Incident]

19. “Such a simplified lifestyle can be truly wonderful - you'll finally have time for the things you really love, for relaxation, for outdoor activities, for exercise, for reading or finding peace and quiet, for the loved ones in your life, for the things you're most passionate about. This is what it means to thrive - to live a life full of the things you want in them, and not more. To live a better quality of life without having to spend and buy and consume.” - Leo Babauta

20. “Michael wasn't on the pool deck, which was hard for me. None of my old Coral Springs teammates were around. Still, that old plane of cement felt like home. I folded my clothes and put them on the bench. I placed my water bottle under my starting block, and I dove in. Once again, I felt that ultimate state of transition, my feet no longer on the ground, my hands not yet in the water.” - Dara Torres

21. “But how?" my students ask. "How do you actually do it?" You sit down, I say. You try to sit down at approximately the same time every day. This is how you train your unconscious to kick in for you creatively. So you sit down at, say, nine every morning, or ten every night. You put a piece of paper in the typewriter, or you turn on the computer and bring up the right file, and then you stare at it for an hour or so. You begin rocking, just a little at first, and then like a huge autistic child. You look at the ceiling, and over at the clock, yawn, and stare at the paper again. Then, with your fingers poised on the keyboard, you squint at an image that is forming in your mind -- a scene, a locale, a character, whatever -- and you try to quiet your mind so you can hear what that landscape or character has to say above the other voices in your mind.” - Anne Lamott

22. “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” - Samuel Johnson

23. “When you try to persistently abolish hatred,at that very moment...you lose focus on love.” - Toba Beta

24. “What you focus on grows!” - Kelli Wilson

25. “Simplicity is ultimately a matter of focus.” - Ann Voskamp

26. “I wanna be the best in at least one thing in this life.” - Toba Beta

27. “To conquer frustration, one must remain intensely focused on the outcome, not the obstacles.” - T.F. Hodge

28. “Focusing is about saying No.” - Steve Jobs

29. “Find your focus by seeking all that is good in your life.” - Lorii Myers

30. “Hatred can't erase love memories.You need to focus on anything else.” - Toba Beta

31. “Focusing is the great secret of power. If you want to use your full amount of focus, you must close down all other thought and direct your power of generating mental steam toward one outcome.” - Stephen Richards

32. “Ah yes, the head is full of books. The hard part is to force them down through the bloodstream and out through the fingers.” - Edward Abbey

33. “I am roots in the earth. I am water that flows. I am grounded. I am Watcher.” - Veronica Wolff

34. “In the game of life, we all receive a set of variables and limitations in the field of play. We can either focus on the lack thereof or empower ourselves to create better realities with the pieces we play the game with.” - T.F. Hodge

35. “I don't spend a lot of time asking "WHY?" Instead I focus on what I should do now or how I should react." (p.180)” - Jeff Dixon-The Key To The Kingdom

36. “[T]he success of every novel -- if it's a novel of action -- depends on the high spots. The thing to do is to say to yourself, "What are my big scenes?" and then get every drop of juice out of them."(Interview, The Paris Review, Issue 64, Winter 1975)” - P.G. Wodehouse

37. “What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they’re dragging you down. They’re turning you into Microsoft. They’re causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great.” - Walter Isaacson

38. “No one but another painter could know the delicacy required to balance the complexities, to keep reality at bay in order to remain in the innermost center of his work.” - Susan Vreeland

39. “There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human's mind against the Enemy. He wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them.” - C.S. Lewis

40. “The true measure of success is how many times you can bounce back from failure.” - Stephen Richards

41. “If you think you can then you can.” - Stephen Richards

42. “When you fail, that is when you get closer to success.” - Stephen Richards

43. “Happiness is something we reap from the seeds we sow. Plant misery seeds and that us what you reap.” - Stephen Richards

44. “Our way of thinking creates good or bad outcomes.” - Stephen Richards

45. “Before you can successfully make friends with others, first you have to become your own friend.” - Stephen Richards

46. “It sometimes takes a state of solitude to bring to mind the real power of companionship.” - Stephen Richards

47. “Without enthusiasm then what we have surrounded ourselves with becomes worthless.” - Stephen Richards

48. “Happy people produce. Bored people consume.” - Stephen Richards

49. “It occurred to Susan that men were always waiting for something cataclysmic--love or war or a giant asteroid. Every man wanted to be a hot-headed Bruce Willis character, fighting against the evil foreign enemy while despising the domestic bureaucracy. Men just wanted to focus on one big thing, leaving the thousands of smaller messes for the women around them to clean up.” - Bonnie Jo Campbell

50. “The whole concatenation of wild and artificial things, the natural ecosystem as modified by people over the centuries, the build environment layered over layers, the eerie mix of sounds and smells and glimpses neither natural nor crafted- all of it is free for the taking, for the taking in. Take it, take it in, take in more every weekend, every day, and quickly it becomes the theater that intrigues, relaxes, fascinates, seduces, and above all expands any mind focused on it. Outside lies utterly ordinary space open to any casual explorer willing to find the extraordinary. Outside lies unprogrammed awareness that at times becomes directed serendipity. Outside lies magic.” - John Stilgoe

51. “...on the job there was nothing but the job. You left the shit outside the door. You could always pick it up on your way back out.” - Laurell K. Hamilton

52. “No matter how small you start, always dream big.” - Stephen Richards

53. “Attention is a resource as abundant as sunlight. It streams outward all day long whether we choose to tap into it or not. By developing conscious focus of our attention, we learn to harness one of the greatest creative powers available to humankind, one that happens to be freely available within ourselves at all times.” - Scott Edmund Miller

54. “He had sprung from a rigid Puritan stock, and had been brought up to think much more intently of the duties of this life than of its privileges and pleasures.” - Henry James

55. “Sometimes we focus so much on what we don't have that we fail to see, appreciate, and use what we do have!” - Jeff Dixon

56. “Information overload is a symptom of our desire to not focus on what's important. It is a choice.” - Brian Solis

57. “To be a highflier and a name to conjure with, you must decide your dimension, plan your path, master the moment, focus on the future, determine your degree, push your persistence and leadyour life.” - Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

58. “Listen for the call of your destiny, and when it comes, release your plans and follow.” - Mollie Marti

59. “Those who row the boat don't have time to rock it while those who rock it don't have time to row it.” - Orrin Woodward

60. “When life gives you lemons, use Cosmic Ordering!” - Stephen Richards

61. “When you use Cosmic Ordering you will move from cloud nine to cloud ten.” - Stephen Richards

62. “With Cosmic Ordering you will never eat humble pie again.” - Stephen Richards

63. “The proof of the pudding is in the Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

64. “There is no eleventh hour with Cosmic Ordering, only the golden hour.” - Stephen Richards

65. “Some people only dream of success… while others wake up and use Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

66. “On the road to success some will always expect tragedy ... ditch your doubts and experience success with Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

67. “In the beginning man was poor, then along came Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

68. “A clever person solves a problem; a wise person uses Cosmic Ordering!” - Stephen Richards

69. “The only secret of wealth creation is knowing how to use Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

70. “Human beings are incredibly slow, Cosmic Ordering is incredibly fast!” - Stephen Richards

71. “Often the only difference between success and failure is not using Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

72. “To fail is nothing, unless you continue to ignore Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

73. “There are more triumphs than defeats with Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

74. “The universe is full of magical things to be manifested with Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

75. “Riches will come when you follow Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

76. “Keep your eyes on the prize for you cant hit an unseen target but don't forget to pay the price” - Bernard Kelvin Clive

77. “A tenacious grip on our own ideals, irrespective of hurdles, would propel us towards self-actualization!” - Deeba Salim Irfan

78. “Create your own miracles, don't just wait for miracles to happen. Infinite possibilities exist by keeping focus on what you really want.” - Steven Redhead

79. “Infinite possibilities exist by keeping focus on what you really want to create your bliss.” - Steven Redhead

80. “Tell me your story and I will get back your life.” - Stephen Richards

81. “Willful blindness sees no end of damage done.” - Stephen Richards

82. “Most of the church landscape in my lifetime has been heavily invested in trying to do something for Jerry or Sherri or some other icon of unchurchness. The problem is that they have been only about themselves from the moment they could wail for their mothers, and the decision to give them at church what they can find in any self-help book appears now as a choice to abandon the One in whose honor the church gathers. What they need is to be set free from themselves with finality and to be lost in the awesome wonder of the manifest presence of God. It was never God’s desire that He would sit on the sideline and watch us frantically devise impressive ways to reach people or simply hold the line on orthodoxy as though faithfulness can exist in a vacuum apart from fruitfulness. God is the Matter of first importance! Can you say that about your current weekly encounter with church?” - James MacDonald

83. “To make 2013 (or any other)your year, keep it simple:1) Count your blessings first2) Whatever you did last year, Do it better3) Go step by step, One day at a time.4) Create/make your own opportunities.5) Believe in your abilities at all times,6) Qutting is not an option. Keep Going.7) Finish what you started” - Pablo

84. “Be focused in what you do and what you say. There is much noise in the world to detrack you.” - Moazzam Shaikh

85. “In order to pick something up, you've got to put something down.” - Todd Stocker

86. “Focus on the highest, clearest, and most meaningful teaching you can find, and let all else go.” - Alan Cohen

87. “To live a more balanced life, glance at the past, live in the present, and focus on the future.” - Todd Stocker

88. “It's not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.” - Nathan W. Morris

89. “We spend a lot of time trying to get more and more things, not realizing that those things can never fulfill us. Learn from those who have gone before you - stuff can never satisfy your desires, so focus on THE ONE who can.” - Osayi Osar-Emokpae

90. “I’ve got a question for you… Are you the person who you thought you’d be by now? I know I am not. The fact is that life may not be what you thought it would be by now (If It is, I congratulate you & applaud you) You may feel stuck in a job you don’t like, not making enough money, jobless, or maybe you are in a bad relationship/marriage, or unhappy because you are out of shape…but don’t let that get you down.The key is 2 focus on what you have (Health,Fam,friends etc) instead of what you don’t have. And also in the things that you have done (Finished a Race-College/Got that Diploma/Raise a Family etc) Instead of the things you haven’t done. yetIF where you are now, it’s not where you want to be…know that where you’re going is far more important than where you are now or where you’ve been.Forgive yourself, Accept the current situation & MOVE ON, knowing that from now on you will focus your time & energy on the possibilities & opportunities that lie ahead 4 you in the near future.” - Pablo

91. “Sophia was asked to speak to the students of a local medical school. “Sophia, what do we need to be better doctors?” the students asked. “Doctors,” Sophia said, “need strong stomachs and strong powers of observation.” Then she opened a canister. The putrid smell quickly moved through the classroom. Sophia stuck a finger in the jar, pulled it up, and then licked it. She passed the jar around encouraging each doctor in training to do the same. Each did, and though many felt nauseas, no one got sick. “You all have very strong stomachs,” she said. “But your powers of observation need some work.” “What do you mean?” they asked. “We did just what you did.” “There is one difference,” she replied. “The finger I dipped in the jar was not the finger I licked.” - David W. Jones

92. “Activities such as chanting, bowing, and sitting in zazen are not at all wasted, even when done merely formally, for even this superficial encounter with the Dharma will have some wholesome outcome at a later time. However, it must be said in the most unambiguous terms that this is not real Zen. To follow the Dharma involves a complete reorientation of one's life in such a way that one's activities are manifestations of, and are filled with, a deeper meaning. If it were not otherwise, and merely sitting in zazen were enough, every frog in the pond would be enlightened, as one Zen master said. Dōgen Zenji himself said that one must practice Zen with the attitude of a person trying to extinguish a fire in his hair. That is, Zen must be practiced with an attitude of single-minded urgency.” - Francis Harold Cook

93. “Make the goal huge and you cannot miss!” - Stephen Richards

94. “Focus is the soul of success.” - Sandeep Kakkar

95. “Often success goes hand-in-hand with the sum total of sexual activity in your life.” - Stephen Richards

96. “You put yourself where you are, and if you find yourself unsatisfied with how you are, then get yourself out of it.” - Stephen Richards

97. “To control your life, control your mind. To control your mind, control your breath.” - Stephen Richards

98. “Your life is in your hands. Only YOU have the capacity to turn it into a rosy path or a thorn filled one. Increase your vibrational output with Cosmic Ordering and your future will be rosy.” - Stephen Richards

99. “Stop harboring grudges against those who have wronged you, it just holds you back when you really want to be in the NOW.” - Stephen Richards

100. “I have read more about Oprah Winfrey’s ass than I have about the rise of China as an economic superpower. I fear this is no exaggeration. Perhaps China is rising as an economic superpower because its women aren’t spending all their time reading about Oprah Winfrey’s ass.” - Caitlin Moran

101. “As long as you allow your past to haunt you, you'll never be free to pursue your future. You won't even be able to focus on your present.” - Brian Klemmer

102. “If you are going to be a doubter, I don't need your negative energy.” - Stephen Richards

103. “When dreams are not clear, the results are often as blurred. You won't be able to arrive at your desired destination if you are not certain of where you're going. You have to be able to see clearly and perfectly.” - Jan Mckingley Hilado

104. “Narrow the focus, take the ascent one step at a time, and it's amazing what odds a man can beat.” - Courtney Schafer

105. “And now that they have us here, under their control, they've dropped whatever act they had on earth. We're seeing them as they really are.' He dipped his glove into the water and watched as the water turned golden. The air suddenly smelled of citrus. 'Look! It's orange juice!''Josh, focus!''You sound just like Mom or Isis or whatever her name is.” - Michael Scott

106. “When you know who you are, you know what to do.” - Shelley Hendrix

107. “Don't look at the present storm, but look to the Son coming.” - Anthony Liccione

108. “Be on guard. The road widens, and many of the detours are seductive.” - David Foster Wallace

109. “Long before they had ever met, I think this destiny awaited them. They were not like ships passing in the night. It wasn't like they didn't understand each other. They understood each other better than anyone else, and each was focused solely on the other.” - Gen Urobuchi

110. “Excuses fall silent behind self-control, focus, and direction.” - Lorii Myers

111. “Set aside your repertoire of objections and own 100 percent of your focus.” - Lorii Myers

112. “Run and hide or rise and shine ...” - Stephen Richards

113. “Positive thinking without any thought is wasted ...” - Stephen Richards