Step Back Quotes

“Instead of playing leapfrog with trivial claptrap or slamming doors with our “always right” egos, let us learn to nurture the seeds of acceptance and step back from our pinned-down prejudices. ( "On a doggy day" )”
― Erik Pevernagie

“If we can step back at times and have the guts to carve doubt in the concrete stone of our certainties, we can hear the beat of a thinking heart. While listening to the stirring of our deep selves and striving to squeeze through the thicket of our intentions, we may find an atoning venue of understanding and sympathy. (" Beware of the neighbor ")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Instead of making impetuous decisions or snap judgments, we must step back, sometimes, and grant ourselves time for slow thinking, allowing critical thinking to open deadlocks and clear up clouds dimming our journey. (" The postman always rings twice ")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Oh my. Molly put her hand to her no-doubt agape mouth. Oh my, oh my, oh my. After her divorce, she hadn’t thought this day would ever come again, but here it was, a second proposal. Life is funny, she thought, and she felt herself step back from the reality of her situation for a moment, lest its emotions overwhelm her and make her swoon like a damsel in those Middle English chivalric romances she taught in 10th-grade English. Yes, life was indeed funny. It had no syllabus, which was why Molly, always a diligent student, felt so unprepared for it. Life played tricks on you too, surprised you, with the biggest surprise that life, even at the nearly half-century mark, could still hold surprises. Like so: There is a man in my kitchen, a man I’m in love with, and he wants to spend the rest of his life with me. How strange and how very unconventional by its conventional, everyday setting.”
― Ray Smith, The Magnolia That Bloomed Unseen

“A retreat from someone or something isn't unusual. Just as how you edge closer to see better, at times you may need to take a step back to get a clearer view.”
― Rajuda

“Creator, if what you are creating has grown insipid and dull, perhaps you ought to take a step back for a moment. Before you go back to your instrument, your pen, your brush-take a breath and remember how to listen again.”
― Michael Gungor, The Crowd, The Critic And The Muse: A Book For Creators

“Take a step back. Life gets distorted when you examine things from too close up.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Being Bold: Quotes, Poetry, & Motivations for Every Day of the Year

“Hippasus’ proof—or at least Nico’s retelling of it—was really so simple that when he finished sketching it out, I wasn’t even aware that we had actually proven anything. Nico paused for a few minutes to let us mull it over.
It was Peter who broke the silence, “I’m not sure I understand what we have done.”
Nico seemed to be expecting such a response. “Step back and examine the proof; in fact, you should try and do this with every proof you see or have to work out for yourself...."
He again waited for his words to sink in, and it began to make sense for me. All my mathematics teachers (other than Bauji and Nico) always seemed to evade this part of their responsibility. They had been content to merely write out a proof on the blackboard and carry on, seemingly without concern for what the proof meant and what it told us.
“But you should not stop here. Even when you have understood a proof, and I hope you have indeed understood this proof, ask yourself the next question, the obvious one, but as critical: So what? Or, why are we proving this? What is the point? What is the context? How does it relate to us? To answer these questions we have to step back a little. Let me show you—it’s really quite delightful.” Now there was excitement in Nico’s voice.”
― Gaurav Suri, A Certain Ambiguity: A Mathematical Novel

“Sometimes we get chances - opportunities - that we're meant to take. And if you take the leap, things will open up and change. And if you take a step back instead? Okay. That's your decision. But you'll never know what you were supposed to find out.”
― Kerry Winfrey, Things Jolie Needs to Do Before She Bites It

“This approach, built on the “wisdom of the crowd” concept, has been called “the crowd within.” The billionaire financier George Soros exemplifies it. A key part of his success, he has often said, is his mental habit of stepping back from himself so he can judge his own thinking and offer a different perspective—to himself.”
― Philip E. Tetlock, Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction

“The step forward in life is a preparation for a step backward.”
― Tamerlan Kuzgov

“Taking charge does not, of course, imply being an authoritarian tyrant. It never requires stepping into being mean. Taking charge in a kind way is a way of saying, explicitly and implicitly, “I’m always going to be there for you, but that doesn’t mean that I always have to be overly nice, because sometimes it is about really letting you know that that is a boundary, you’ve crossed it, and we need to step back.”
― Kent Hoffman, Raising a Secure Child: How Circle of Security Parenting Can Help You Nurture Your Child's Attachment, Emotional Resilience, and Freedom to Explore

“You know, when you're stuck in the same old routine in the city, it's easy to get caught up in the grind and forget what life is really about. But then you take a step back, get out of town, and watch the sunset, and it's like a whole new world opens up.”
― Tadas Petrovas