“Don't concentrate on the obvious. They might want you to miss something else.”
John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower
Source: The Sorcerer in the North
“When witnesses concoct lies, they often miss the obvious.”
— John Grisham, book The Testament
Source: The Testament
Last update June 3, 2021. History
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John Grisham28
American lawyer, politician, and author 1955Related quotes
Arthur Schopenhauer book Parerga and Paralipomena
Vol. 2, Ch. 26, sect. 311a
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), Counsels and Maxims
“Words are witnesses which often speak louder than documents.”
Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) British academic historian and Marxist historiographer
Introduction
The Age of Revolution (1962)
Context: Words are witnesses which often speak louder than documents. Let us consider a few English words, which were invented or gained their modern meanings, substantially in the period of sixty years with which this volume deals. They are such words as 'industry', 'industrialist', 'factory,' middle class,' 'working class,' and 'socialism.' They include 'aristocracy,' as well as 'railway,' 'liberal' and 'conservative' as political terms, 'nationality,'scientist,' and 'engineer,' 'proletariat,' and (economic) 'crisis'.
“Happiness lies only in a divine unrest; and if you are lapped in comfort you stagnate and miss it.”
John Buchan book A Lodge in the Wilderness
Source: A Lodge in the Wilderness (1906), Ch. I, p. 23
Wilfrid Sheed (1930–2011) English-American novelist and essayist
Walker Percy Redivivus" (1971), p. 130
The Good Word & Other Words (1978)
Philip G. Zimbardo (1933) American social psychologist, author of Stanford Prison Experiment
"The Banality of Heroism" in The Greater Good (Fall/Winter 2006/2007), co-written with Zeno Franco
Context: The idea of the banality of heroism debunks the myth of the “heroic elect,” a myth that reinforces two basic human tendencies. The first is to ascribe very rare personal characteristics to people who do something special — to see them as superhuman, practically beyond comparison to the rest of us. The second is the trap of inaction — sometimes known as the "bystander effect." Research has shown that the bystander effect is often motivated by diffusion of responsibility, when different people witnessing an emergency all assume someone else will help. Like the “good guards,” we fall into the trap of inaction when we assume it’s someone else’s responsibility to act the hero.
Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate
Source: Father and Child Reunion (2001), p. 106.
“To witness titanic events is always dangerous, usually painful, and often fatal.”
Larry Niven (1938) American writer
Source: Ringworld (1970), p. 133