Priorities Quotes

“Respect was one thing. Survival was another. It was important that I kept my priorities in the right order.”
― Tahir Shah, Sorcerer's Apprentice

“At the end of the day, you should try to remember that it's not about the number of followers you have or the numbers of likes, comments, and shares your posts are getting.
It's the number of people who will be present in the hospital room when you fall terribly sick.
It's the number of people who will remember your birthday like they remember their first name.
It's the number of people who will invite you to celebrate Christmas or new year's eve.
It's the number of people who will actually show up to look at your newborn child or to bless your newly bought house.
It's the number of people who will actually cross an ocean to see your face.
It's the number of people who will wipe your tears when one of your parents passes away.
It's the number of people who will make a slightly larger than a thumb effort to be there for you.”
― Malak El Halabi

“The great opposition to reading is what I allow to fill my time instead of reading. To say we have no time to read is not really true; we simply have chosen to use our time for other things, or have allowed our time to be filled to the exclusion of reading. So don't add reading to your to-do list. Just stop doing the things that keep you from doing it. But read.”
― James Emery White

“When we black people commit ourselves to living simply as a political action, as a way of breaking the stress caused by unrelenting hedonistic desire for material objects that are not needed for survival, or essential to well-being, we will not be talking about ebonics. We will be out in the streets demanding that the public schools have enough teachers so that all kids, cross color, can read and write in standard English and in Spanish too.”
― bell hooks, Black Genius: African-American Solutions to African-American Problems

“The problem in today’s economy is that people are typically starting a family at the very time they are also supposed to be doing their best work. They are trying to be productive at some of the most stressful times of their lives. What if companies took this unhappy collision of life events seriously? They could offer Gottman’s intervention as a benefit for every newly married, or newly pregnant, employee.”
― John Medina, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

“I flopped on the overstuffed kitchen couch and watched him go. I wondered what would happen to all his films and photographs in the upstairs closet - the documentaries on homelessness and drug addiction, the funny short subjects, the half-finished romantic comedy, the boxes of slice-of-life photographs that spoke volumes about the human condition. I wondered how you stop caring about what you've ached over, sweated over. (Thwonk)”
― Joan Bauer

“You don't get time.
You create time.”
― Sanhita Baruah

“... and people who have kids, people with husbands and jobs and mortgages, don't much want to hear about other people's paintings.”
― Michele Young-Stone, The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors

“I’m too busy’ is another way of saying, ‘It’s not a priority.”
― Frank Sonnenberg, Listen to Your Conscience: That's Why You Have One

“We could be at war with Eurasia and on the verge of cloning unicorns, and I’d have no clue. I’ve been busy. Searching. Scouring.”
― Ali Hazelwood, Bride

“Enttäuschung und Frustration werden [...] alle erleben, die sich wie im Märchen danach sehnen, Glück in einem Schlaraffenland zu finden ... Nur, dass unser Schlaraffenland nicht ein großer Berg von süßem Brei ist ... wir haben andere Fantasien und Bilder von Fülle und Erfülltheit in einem imaginären Schlaraffenland, das nur eben unglücklicherweise niemals dort ist, wo wir tatsächlich leben. Vielmehr leben wir mit der Hoffnung auf ein Glück, das uns das Schicksal irgenwann einmal gewähren müsse. [...] So können wir das Schlaraffenland je nach unserer eigenen Fasson ausgestalten - und wir tun es. Privat und auch gesellschaftlich.

Doch sobald wir anfangen, uns mit diesem Glücksmodell anzufreunden, und gespannt darauf warten, wie im Lotto das große Los zu ziehen, werden wir auf einem Weg sein, wo das Glück ganz bestimmt nicht zu uns findet! Wir bleiben hungrig und ungesättigt. Denn geheimnisvollerweise ist das Glück dort, wo wir Bezogenheit leben - selbst in dem unspektatulärsten Tun des Alltags.”
― Joachim Gauck, Freiheit. Ein Plädoyer

“She must go back to them. But what an extraordinary night! She felt somehow very like him - the young man who killed himself. She felt glad that he had done it; thrown it away while they went on living. The clock was striking. The leaden circles dissolved in the air. But she must go back. She must assemble. She must find Sally and Peter. And she came in from the little room.”
― Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

“The Law is to protect property, and it thinks too much of property. A couple of brass pots, an old saddle, are reckoned worth more than a poor man’s life.”
― Willa Cather, Shadows on the Rock

“I would have liked to ask people: 'Are you in love?' or 'What are you reading?' but I never wondered what their job was, although to them it was often of prime importance.”
― Françoise Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse / A Certain Smile

“Perhaps I should give up books and conversation and walks, and head for a place where the pleasures of money and frivolity and other absorbing distractions could be enjoyed. Perhaps I should acquire the means to do so and myself become a thing of beauty.”
― Françoise Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse / A Certain Smile

“Apparently the driver had driven through three barriers before they ended up at the bottom of the ravine. And when asked how they had missed the “Bridge Out” signs, the driver replied, “I was too busy driving the car to read the signs.” And as I think about our culture, I often wonder how many ravines are we going to have to end up in before we begin reading the signs?”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“So Glinda was telling us how you’re trying to find out about someone getting kicked out of Penhaven, and I was telling her that I dated this girl who works in the records department. Her name was Sara, and she was really nice, but she was also a Pisces, and I’m a Leo, so—”
“You can skip that bit,” Gwyn told her, laying a hand on her arm, “much as it did enhance the original story.”
― Erin Sterling, The Kiss Curse

“All those no’s were in the service of a bigger yes”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“Every time you're tempted to say 'I'm too busy' say instead, 'That's not a priority for me, therefore it's not a promise I've made and I'll have to decline.' If you're brave enough to make the switch, one of two things is going to happen when you do:

Either you're going to feel really bad when you realize that something that deeply matters to you (your kids, your health, your marriage, your commitment to justice, cultivating lifelong friendships) isn't actually the priority you want to believe it is. This will compel you to go back to your Very Important Promises and see what you can cut in order to create space for the things that really matter to you.
OR
Saying that statement may initially sting because we've been conditioned to feel bad about 'Nos,' but as the words settle, it will feel true<>/i> to you. Instead of allowing this thing you're 'too busy for' to perpetually hang over your head, your NO (because it is not a priority or a promise) will free you up to unapologetically and confidently spend your limited moments and resources on the things that matter most to you.”
― Liz Forkin Bohannon, Beginner's Pluck: Build Your Life of Purpose and Impact Now

“Every time you're tempted to say 'I'm too busy' say instead, 'That's not a priority for me, therefore it's not a promise I've made and I'll have to decline.' If you're brave enough to make the switch, one of two things is going to happen when you do:

Either you're going to feel really bad when you realize that something that deeply matters to you (your kids, your health, your marriage, your commitment to justice, cultivating lifelong friendships) isn't actually the priority you want to believe it is. This will compel you to go back to your Very Important Promises and see what you can cut in order to create space for the things that really matter to you.
OR
Saying that statement may initially sting because we've been conditioned to feel bad about 'Nos,' but as the words settle, it will feel true to you. Instead of allowing this thing you're 'too busy for' to perpetually hang over your head, your NO (because it is not a priority or a promise) will free you up to unapologetically and confidently spend your limited moments and resources on the things that matter most to you.”
― Liz Forkin Bohannon, Beginner's Pluck: Build Your Life of Purpose and Impact Now

“What we think we want right now can prevent us from achieving what we really want in the future.”
― Scott Shumway, The Invisible Four-letter Word: The Secret to Getting What You Really Want in Life.

“To get closer to the things we want,
we must concurrently get away from
the things we don’t want.”
― Scott Shumway, The Invisible Four-letter Word: The Secret to Getting What You Really Want in Life.

“Remembering what we really want creates a constancy in purpose, which further leads to consistency in character.”
― Scott Shumway, The Invisible Four-letter Word: The Secret to Getting What You Really Want in Life.

“While your wants get you into conflicts, only your wants can get you out of them.”
― Scott Shumway, The Invisible Four-letter Word: The Secret to Getting What You Really Want in Life.

“Take an upright approach to life by recognizing and regulating your wants so you can get what you really WANT!”
― Scott Shumway, The Invisible Four-letter Word: The Secret to Getting What You Really Want in Life.

“Healthy people are attracted to those who prioritize and take great care of their own well-being.”
― Robin S. Baker

“Every moment you focus on things that don’t matter, you lose time to spend on things that do.”
― Frank Sonnenberg, BECOME: Unleash the Power of Moral Character and Be Proud of the Life You Choose

“It’s less important to get everything done than to get the right things done.”
― Frank Sonnenberg, BECOME: Unleash the Power of Moral Character and Be Proud of the Life You Choose

“Tyler: Do you know what a duvet is?

Narrator: A comforter.

Tyler: It’s a blanket. Just a blanket.
Why do guys like you and I know what a duvet is?
Is this essential to our survival
in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word?
No.
What are we, then?

Narrator: I don’t know. Consumers?”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

“Sometimes, letting go is the only way to hold on to what truly matters.”
― Shivanshu K. Srivastava