Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short, in all management of human affairs.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life

Man’s basic vice . . . is the act of unfocusing his mind, the suspension of his consciousness, which is not blindness, but the refusal to see, not ignorance, but the refusal to know.

—Ayn Rand, The Objectivist Ethics

Chase two rabbits, both will escape.

—Russian proverb