“I’m sure you have seen people in life who are so desirous of gaining attention that if they cannot have and gain attention through normal channels, through normal social channels, they will gain it through anti-social means. […] They are so selfcentered that they must gain attention and they must be seen in order to survive. They want to be admired and in their quest for admiration, they don’t gain it and in their failure to gain it, they become frustrated and bewildered and disillusioned. Also, it leads to extreme sensitiveness.”

1950s, Conquering Self-centeredness (1957)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I’m sure you have seen people in life who are so desirous of gaining attention that if they cannot have and gain attent…" by Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Martin Luther King, Jr.658

American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Ci… 1929–1968

Related quotes

“And the other thing is that it causes one to engage ultimately in activities that are merely used to get attention. Criminologists tell us that some people are driven to crime because of this drum major instinct. They don't feel that they are getting enough attention through the normal channels of social behavior, and so they turn to anti-social behavior in order to get attention, in order to feel important. And so they get that gun, and before they know it they robbed a bank in a quest for recognition, in a quest for importance.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, The Drum Major Instinct (1968)

“I think that the best way to gain knowledge is through gaining experience and through connections”

Vangelis (1943) Greek composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, pop rock, and orchestral music

1979
Context: On theory: "I don’t know any theory. Knowing the theory does not mean anything. If we theoretically know what a human being is, but someone has never seen one, or if you have never had a relationship with a human being, you cannot know anything about human beings! I think that the best way to gain knowledge is through gaining experience and through connections... Look, if I approach an instrument theoretically, it will give me a theory, so therefore this will make cold music".

“Shortly after pithecanthropus erectus gained the ascendancy, he turned his attention to the higher-order abstractions.”

Richard Arnold Epstein (1927) American physicist

Source: The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic (Revised Edition) 1977, Chapter One, Kubeiagenesis, p. 1

“Satirists gain the applause of others through fear, not through love.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

No. 72
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)

“What is gained through ignorance is bound to be lost through ignorance.”

Siddharth Katragadda (1972) Indian writer

page 42
Dark Rooms (2002)

“Attention rather than information becomes the scarce resource, and those who can distinguish valuable information from the background clutter gain power.”

Joseph Nye (1937) American political scientist

Source: Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (6th ed., 2006), Chapter 8, The Information Revolution and the Diffusion of Power, p. 252.