Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things.

Dantes observed, however, that Faria, in spite of the relief his society afforded, daily grew sadder; one thought seemed incessantly to harass and distract his mind.

Besides, I believe, between ourselves, she did this in order to distract her mind, that she might forget; and she only filled her head in order to alleviate the weight on her heart.

``Be it so; I will stay; I must do something to distract my thoughts.''

All my hopes are blighted, my heart is broken, my life a burden, everything around me is sad and mournful; earth has become distasteful to me, and human voices distract me.

By means of the unproductive class, the cultivators are delivered from many cares, which would otherwise distract their attention from the cultivation of land.

Why should any of these things that happen externally, so much distract thee?

But the care of thine honour and reputation will perchance distract thee?

I for my part will do what belongs unto me; as for other things, whether things unsensible or things irrational; or if rational, yet deceived and ignorant of the true way, they shall not trouble or distract me.

Take pains therefore to know what it is that thy nature requireth, and let nothing else distract thee.

I recorded and wrote all of the music and the parts (but) I didn't want to distract the listener from whatever they needed to think when they heard the music."

Welch and Browns’ third base coach Arlie Latham tried to distract Clarkson with heckling and faking moves toward home.

The pickpocketing victim, Mr. Gerald Putman, reviewing photographs, identifies Carmen, a Colombian whose large breasts help distract her victims.

The foreground of the canvas is thronged with a swarm of male infants, or "putti", who distract themselves in activities such as climbing trees, leaping, flying, gathering apples, lying around, fighting, fondling, shooting arrows and pulling each other's hair.

After a number of dry runs, McMahon and the escort were able to distract the guard for long enough for Hill to retrieve the key from his pants and make a copy.

The second exercise is the same, except that the coach tries to distract the student both verbally and physically.

Covenant calls the Ranyhyn, who are able to distract Joan – due to her love of horses.

It also wrote, "Both ['Express' and 'Show Me How You Burlesque'] work better in the context of the movie, where the elaborate visuals help distract from their lack of melody and strong hooks.

He, along with Iggy, is skilled at making bombs and has a lot of knowledge about them,For example when he and Iggy had to escape from their original house in they created a bomb to distract and, hopefully, rid themselves of the Erasers for the time being.

The nightjar's two eggs are laid directly on bare ground near rocks or scrubby vegetation—there is no nest. The adult may feign injury to distract an intruder from the eggs or young birds.

At Havik's request, Kabal brings his raw recruits to Outworld, and as depicted in his ending, he assigns them to distract the Earthrealm heroes while Havik slays the Dragon King Onaga and takes his heart, which has the power to raise the dead.

When Jack and Sydney run into the house and momentarily distract Adam, Rolf grabs the shotgun.

He placed 54,000 Sabines and Etruscans on the Etruscan border under the command of a praetor, and sent 40,000 Umbrians, Sarsinates, Veneti and Cenomani to attack the home territory of the Boii to distract them from the battle.

The two plan for Giles to distract Buffy while Wood takes care of Spike.

Buffy realizes that Giles has been trying to distract her while Wood kills Spike.

In the early days, they look to the school as a way to alienate their kids, to teach them moral delinquencies, to distract them from Baggara way of life: cattle herding and nomadic movement.

As Syndrome tries to escape to his jet, Jack-Jack's own morphing superpowers start to manifest and distract Syndrome.

According to Puntland government documents, the Somaliland region's Riyale government in 2006 both financed and offered military assistance to Atom's men as part of a campaign to destabilize the autonomous territory via proxy agents and to distract attention away from the Somaliland government's own attempts at occupying the disputed Sool province.

When deadlines approach and he still has not composed a song, he tries to distract himself by looking at something he finds beautiful or unusual. He draws much of his inspiration from the songs he heard on the radio growing up, and particularly the compositions of Tōru Takemitsu.

Sometime between this incident and the events of Hush, the Riddler was hired to steal artifacts imbued with mystical powers from one of Star City's museums, and then distract the authorities so that the related rituals could be commenced.

He further stated, "I don't have facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration.

There, Havik revealed his plans: lure the heroes into a battle with Onaga, and, once the Dragon King had been defeated, take down or distract the victors of the battle long enough so that Havik could consume Onaga's heart.

In Fischer's view, the Imperial German state saw itself under siege by rising demands for democracy at home and looked to distract democratic strivings through a policy of aggression abroad.

For Fischer, German foreign policy before 1914 was largely motivated by the efforts of the reactionary German elite to distract the public from casting their votes for the Social Democrats and to make Germany the world's greatest power at the expense of France, Britain and Russia.

Jack and Nancy sacrifice themselves to a crowd of pursuing pod people to distract them and give their friends time to escape.

It contained chocolate, cognac, and cigarettes, to distract searchers, as well as with forged papers, intended to result in time lost in investigating the false information they contained.

Surprise was achieved thanks to inclement weather and a comprehensive deception plan implemented in the months before the landings, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, to distract German attention from the possibility of landings in Normandy.

There were also decoy operations taking place simultaneously with the landings under the codenames Operation Glimmer and Operation Taxable to distract German forces from the real landing areas.

You may at any point choose to take out the enemies factories, distract their fighters, harass incoming landing craft or pick off specific targets.

When the ride ends, either intentionally or not, the bullfighters distract the bull to protect the rider from harm.

The cast found the experience informative; Murray explained, "I realised that most cons are all about diversion – while you're trying to con somebody you're doing something to distract them in the opposite direction so they don't notice and that's exactly how pickpockets work".

When the empty nature of the Self and the Mind is fully understood, there is no longer a root for the disturbing emotions to be attached to, and the disturbing emotions lose their power to distract the mind.

Parent birds will feign injury to distract potential nest predators.

According to NHL rules, various infractions during a breakaway that can lead to a penalty shot being awarded include a goaltender deliberately dislodging a goal-post (delay of game), a defending player using a stick or any other part of his body to interfere with the attacking player, a goaltender or other player throwing his stick to distract or hinder the attacking player, or any other foul committed against the attacking player from behind.

The plan was allegedly to start a feud between the two IRA factions, which would distract them from their fight against the security forces and drain their support.

After hiding under a truck they hear a train and lure Dinocroc across the tracks with Tom using a blowtorch to distract it until the train arrives.

Macki encourages Justin to distract the others in their class including Justin's stepbrother Ali and his friend Nicole Owen.

In order to conceal these movements, Yoshinaka sought to distract his enemy with a highly formal battle, beginning with archery exchanges using whistling-bulb arrows.