“It is often said that the modern exhibition has ruined painting. It is an unfortunate fact that it does encourage competition, so that, to attract attention to his work, an artist is tempted to descend to sensationalism, whether it is expressed by strong colour, grotesque handling, unusual subject, or sheer size.” DoeSaidFactsArtistStrongAttentionModernSubjectsPaintingCompetitionSizeColourUnusualSheerUnfortunateRuinedTemptedGrotesqueExhibitionsSensationalism Author:Walter J. Phillips
“I think the messiness and embodied nature of modern life just produces an enhanced signal for our attention.” ThinkingAttentionFocusModernProduceSignalsModern LifeMessiness Author:Richard Davidson
“The modern reader (or viewer, or listener: let's include everybody) is perilously overloaded. His attention is, to use the latest lingo,'targeted' by powerful forces? Our consciousness is a staging area, a field of operations for all kinds of enterprises, which make free use of it.” KindUseForcePowerfulAttentionConsciousnessModernFieldsReaderAreasAll KindsOperationsEnterpriseListenersViewersStagingOverloaded Author:Saul Bellow
“Since the Greeks the predominant attitude of thinkers towards intellectual activity was to glorify it insofar as (like aesthetic activity) it finds its satisfaction in itself, apart from any attention to the advantages it may procure. Most thinkers would have agreed with Renan's verdict that the man who loves science for its fruits commits the worst of blasphemies against that divinity. The modern clercs have violently torn up this charter. They proclaim the intellectual functions are only respectable to the extent that they are bound up with the pursuit of concrete advantage.” MenMayAttentionAttitudeModernWorstHe ManActivityIntellectualAdvantageFunctionFruitBoundsSatisfactionPursuitCommitGreekDivinityThinkerAestheticConcreteTornRespectableGlorifyBlasphemyCharterVerdictScience Love Author:Julien Benda
“The average attention span of the modern human being is about half as long as whatever youre trying to tell them.” TryingHumansLongHuman BeingsAttentionHalfModernAverageAttention Span Author:Meg Rosoff
“There is a close relationship between a house full of possessions and a heart full of desires, between a cluttered closet and a crowded schedule, between having no place to put possessions and having no priorities for our life. These are precious clues. They remind us to slow down, to live in the present, to reduce the desires that drain our vitality, to clarify priorities so we can give our time and attention to what matters most. Tragically, in the press of modern life, we have managed to get backwards one of life's most vital truths: people are to be loved; things are to be used.” PeopleLoveGivingHeartMatterTruthUsedDesireHouseAttentionOur LivesRelationshipModernPressesPossessionPrioritiesLive LifeOur TimeWhat MattersSchedulesClosetsBackwardsClueSlow DownVitalityModern LifeCrowdedDrainsLive In The PresentPressuredClose RelationshipMost Meaningful Author:Eknath Easwaran
“Modern physics has taught us that the nature of any system cannot be discovered by dividing it into its component parts and studying each part by itself... We must keep our attention fixed on the whole and on the interconnection between the parts. The same is true of our intellectual life. It is impossible to make a clear cut between science, religion, and art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its various parts.” ArtWholeAttentionStudyClearCuttingImpossibleModernTaughtEqualIntellectualVariousPhysicsFixedComponentsTaught UsDividingScience ReligionInterconnectionIntellectual LifeModern PhysicsReligion And Art Author:Max Planck
“Most poetry is very formal, but when a modern poet is formal he gets more attention for it than old poets did.” AttentionModernPoetPoetry IsFormal Book:Robert Lowell, Interviews and Memoirs Source: Robert Lowell, Interviews and Memoirs
“There will be a competition among critics for the best Paris Hilton insult. Here's my first: Her attention span is so short that she can't even maintain her concentration while running away from a psycho... Maybe the ultimate insult is that she makes her co-star Elisha Cuthbert seem, by comparison, the sexiest and most interesting actress in modern cinema.” FirstsSeemsRunningStarsInterestingAttentionModernUltimateCompetitionCriticsActressesCinemaParisInsultComparisonConcentrationRunning AwayMost InterestingPsychoAttention SpanSexiest Author:David Edelstein