--- title: "3 Paying Attention Quotes By Tom Robbins" description: "3 Paying Attention quotes by Tom Robbins. Plus more from Tom Robbins and more Paying Attention sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1e3/tom-robbins-169_happy-people_what-is-politics-after-all-but-the-compu_1279252.jpg" --- > [“What is politics, after all, but the compulsion to preside over property and make other peoples' decisions for them? Liberty, the very…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/what-is-politics-after-all-but-the-compulsion-to-preside-over/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1e3/tom-robbins-169_happy-people_what-is-politics-after-all-but-the-compu_1279252.jpg) > [The unhappy person resents it when you try to cheer him up, because that means he has to stop dwelling on himself…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/the-unhappy-person-resents-it-when-you-try-to-cheer-him-up-because/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6a6/tom-robbins-169_attention_the-unhappy-person-resents-it-when-you-t_1834349.jpg) > [“...if we aren't learning something from a new experience, it's usually because we aren't paying attention. Or we're following the wrong libretto.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/if-we-aren-t-learning-something-from-a-new-experience-it-s-usually/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0bc/tom-robbins-169_paying-attention_if-we-aren-t-learning-something-from-a-n_2522017.jpg) ## Other authors on Paying Attention - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b001/author-jon-kabat-zinn-1327.jpg) Jon Kabat-Zinn 9 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/paying-attention/jon-kabat-zinn/) - [Susan C. Young 8 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/paying-attention/susan-c-young/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b004/author-anne-lamott-13804.jpg) Anne Lamott 8 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/paying-attention/anne-lamott/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b005/author-barack-obama-16275.jpg) Barack Obama 7 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/paying-attention/barack-obama/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b023/author-suzanne-collins-88237.jpg) Suzanne Collins 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/paying-attention/suzanne-collins/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b013/author-john-green-51499.jpg) John Green 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/paying-attention/john-green/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b007/author-chuck-palahniuk-24118.jpg) Chuck Palahniuk 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/paying-attention/chuck-palahniuk/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b007/author-david-foster-wallace-27461.jpg) David Foster Wallace 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/paying-attention/david-foster-wallace/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b005/author-bren-brown-19292.jpg) Brene Brown 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/paying-attention/bren-brown/) ## More by Tom Robbins > [There are times when we can feel destiny close around us like a fist around a doorknob. Sure, we can resist. But a knob…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/there-are-times-when-we-can-feel-destiny-close-around-us-like-a-fist/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) > [Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/love-is-the-ultimate-outlaw-it-just-won-t-adhere-to-any-rules-the/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) > [The party in Alobar’s head, which agitation and anxiety were throwing, now was crashed by a notion: existence can be rearranged.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/the-party-in-alobar-s-head-which-agitation-and-anxiety-were-throwing/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) > [The world is a wonderfully weird place, consensual reality is significantly flawed, no institution can be trusted, certainty is a mirage, security a delusion,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/the-world-is-a-wonderfully-weird-place-consensual-reality-is/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) > [Anyone who maintains absolute standards of good and evil is dangerous. As dangerous as a maniac with a loaded revolver.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/anyone-who-maintains-absolute-standards-of-good-and-evil-is-dangerous/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) > [“I believe in everything; nothing is sacred. I believe in nothing; everything is sacred. Ha Ha Ho Ho Hee Hee.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/i-believe-in-everything-nothing-is-sacred-i-believe-in-nothing/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) > [A sense of humor...is superior to any religion so far devised.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/a-sense-of-humor-is-superior-to-any-religion-so-far-devised/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) > [“Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/love-is-the-ultimate-outlaw-it-just-won-t-adhere-to-any-rules-the-2/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) > [“The glue that holds the natural world together appears to be a harmonious balance of opposites: day and night, light and dark, winter and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/the-glue-that-holds-the-natural-world-together-appears-to-be-a/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) > [Zippers are primal and modern at the very same time. On the one hand, your zipper is primitive and reptilian, on the other, mechanical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/zippers-are-primal-and-modern-at-the-very-same-time-on-the-one-hand/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) > [“religion is a paramount contributor to human misery. It is not merely the opium of the masses, it is the cyanide.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/religion-is-a-paramount-contributor-to-human-misery-it-is-not-merely/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) > [She continued weeping until the heat of her tear water, the sheer velocity of its flow, finally obscured the already vague circumstances of its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/she-continued-weeping-until-the-heat-of-her-tear-water-the-sheer/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) > [The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/the-bottom-line-is-that-a-people-are-never-perfect-but-love-can-be-b/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) > [Virtually every advancement made by our species since civilization first peeked out of its nest of stone has been initiated by lone individuals, mavericks…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/virtually-every-advancement-made-by-our-species-since-civilization/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) > [When we accept small wonders, we qualify ourselves to imagine great wonders.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/when-we-accept-small-wonders-we-qualify-ourselves-to-imagine-great/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/paying-attention/tom-robbins/#itemlist", "name": "3 Paying Attention Quotes By Tom Robbins", "numberOfItems": 3, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“What is politics, after all, but the compulsion to preside over property and make other peoples' decisions for them? Liberty, the very opposite of ownership and control, cannot, then, result from political action, either at the polls or the barricades, but rather evolves out of attitude. If it results from anything, it may be levity. If civilization is ever going to be anything but a grandiose pratfall, anything more than a can of deodorizer in the sh*thouse of existence, the people are going to have to concern themselves with magic and poetry. Reality is subjective, and there's an unenlightened tendency in this culture to regard something as 'important' only if it's sober and severe. Your Cheerful Dumb are not so much happy as lobotomized. But your Gloomy Smart are just as ridiculous. When you're unhappy, you get to pay a lot of attention to yourself. And you get to take yourself oh so very seriously. Your truly happy people, which is to say, your people who truly LIKE themselves, they don't think about themselves very much. 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