Quote Image - Desktop Image

Quote Image- Mobile Image

Get the Daily Inspiration in your inbox

By subscribing to Inspiring Quotes you are agreeing to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Thursday, April 17, 2025

Attention is a moral act: It creates, brings aspects of things into being.

Iain McGilchrist

British psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and philosopher Iain McGilchrist contemplates the morality of attention in his 2009 book “The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World.” In his writing, he suggests the effects of attention are cyclical: The attention we give something affects how we perceive it, and vice versa. McGilchrist’s research in brain lateralization (i.e., how the left and right hemispheres of our brains each function) raises questions about how we choose to make sense of the world around us. Most notably, this quote serves as a stark reminder that our attention has the power to inform our inner and outer worlds, and we must wield that power wisely.

Play more header background

Daily Question

Fill in the blank: "___ is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect." - Steve Jobs

More Inspiration

The heart is not like a box that gets filled up; it expands in size the more you love.

Spike Jonze

Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.

Henry David Thoreau

We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain.

Alan Watts

Run to the rescue with love and peace will follow.

River Phoenix

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

Alan Watts

You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people, if you don't serve the people.

Cornel West

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

Sharon Begley

Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

Martin Luther King Jr.

It isn't a sadness, but a joy, that we don't do the same things for the length of our lives.

Gabrielle Zevin

The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.

William Somerset Maugham

Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.

Albert Camus

Featured Articles

Our Top 23 Quotes of 2023

December 15, 2023

The Best Quotes To Use in Wedding Toasts, Cards, and Vows

May 8, 2024

9 Quotes That Define Intersectionality

March 20, 2024

7 Things You Didn’t Know About Truman Capote

May 29, 2024

20 Surprisingly Insightful Quotes From Children’s Movies

March 13, 2024

13 Romantic Quotes From Beloved Period Pieces

June 5, 2024

13 Hilarious Lines From History’s Funniest Poets

May 29, 2024

Quotes From Award-Winning Books of the 21st Century

May 22, 2024

12 Quotes for When You’re Feeling Overstimulated

December 18, 2023

The Most Romantic Song Lyrics Ever Written

January 24, 2024

13 Quotes About the Magic of Winter

December 18, 2023