QuoteProject
It is treacherous on a high wire to change your focus point and suddenly look down.
Philippe Petit
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Changing your focus can lead to fear and loss of balance in challenging situations.

Philippe Petit's quote highlights the importance of maintaining focus and composure, especially in high-stakes situations. Looking down, or shifting your attention away from your goal, can evoke fear and destabilize your progress, suggesting that courage is necessary to persevere despite uncertainty.

Themes

FocusBalanceCourageFearConcentration

In practice

Example use cases

During a motivational speech about overcoming fears and challenges.

More from Philippe Petit

I was born in a world of opera, theatre, films, poetry, art, and therefore, out of the wire, I made a stage. That's why they call me a high wire artist.
Philippe PetitRead
On a very long and very high wire, I will not hope to not be blown off by high winds. I will have the certitude that such could not happen.
Philippe PetitRead
Many people use the words 'death defying' or 'death wishing' when they talk about wire-walking. Many people have asked me: 'So do you have a death wish?' After doing a beautiful walk, I feel like punching them in the nose. It's indecent. I have a life wish.
Philippe PetitRead
It's very easy to walk on a wire if you spend a whole lifetime practicing for it.
Philippe PetitRead
I am not up there by chance. I am there by choice. And I know the wire. And I know my limits. And I am a madman of details.
Philippe PetitRead
If I had been born in the circus, my parents would have pushed me on that little high wire at four years old. That's when the body is most limber to learn those acrobatics.
Philippe PetitRead

Similar quotes

You might not be a big fan of politics, but you can still participate. All you need to do is vote for people you believe will work on these issues, and if they don't work the way they should, then it is your responsibility to call them, organize a town hall, and demand that they show up - hold them accountable.
Emma GonzalezRead
For years and years, I convinced myself that I was unbreakable, an animal with an animal strength or something not human at all. Me, I told people, I take damage like a wall, a brick wall that never falls down, never feels anything, never flinches or remembers. I am one woman but I carry in my body all the stories I have ever been told, women I have known, women who have taken damage until they tell themselves they can feel no pain at all.
Dorothy AllisonRead
I was at Yale from 1953 to 1957, and I tried to commit suicide in my freshman year because I was gay, and I thought I was the only person in the school who was. I was just totally and utterly miserable.
Larry KramerRead
What doesn't kill me just makes me stronger
Tupac ShakurRead
I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!
Cesar ChavezRead
As someone who wasn't heavily supported or resourced as a young person when I was going through the hardest times of my life, I'm used to operating outside of systems. The trans movement has always been that way.
Janet MockRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.