Quotes About Passions

The tyrant of Syracuse once went to the slavephilosopher Epictetus and told him, "I'll pay the ransom for you and you will be liberated " Epictetus replied, "Why do you care about me? Free yourself." "But I am a king," said the amazed tyrant. "This I contest," was the answer of the philosopher. "He who masters his passions is a king even while in chains. He who is ruled by his passions is a slave even while sitting on a throne.

My characters are more like men than these real men are, see. They're rough and rude, they got hands and they got bellies. They hate and they lust; break the skin of civilization and you find the ape, roaring and red-handed.

Absence diminishes minor passions and inflames great ones, as the wind douses a candle and fans a fire. La Rochefoucauld, 1613-1680 OBSERVANCE

It is an absurdity to believe that the Deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human passions, a restless appetite for applause

Hobbies of any kind are boring except to people who have the same hobby. This is also true of religion, although you will not find me saying so in print.

Politics should share one purpose with religion: the steady emancipation of the individual through the education of his passions.

Human passions unbridled by morality and religion...would break the stronges cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.

The Mathematics are Friends to Religion; inasmuch as they charm the Passions, restrain the Impetuosity of Imagination, and purge the Mind from Error and Prejudice.

we need an education that enhances individual strengths, follows children's passions,

When one has attained a state of mind from which the evil passions of the present world have been so utterly winnowed, fear too is forgotten. Thus it was that the priest no longer could understand why Hell should exist.

He hadn't been able to explain his ideas of glory and death, or the longing and the melancholy pent up in his chest, or the other dark passions choking in the ocean's swell. Whenever he tried to talk about those things, he failed. If there were times when he felt he was worthless, there were others when something like the magnificence of the sunset over Mnila Bay sent its radiant fire through him and he knew that he had been chosen to tower above other men.

There are two things that I cannot live without: music and books. Caffeine isn't dignified enough to qualify.

Maribeau said that "none but men of strong passions are capable of rising to greatness." Tennyson said, "The happiness of a man in his life does not consist in the absence but in the mastering of his passions." Franklin said that "he is a governor that governs his passions and he is a servant that serves them.

What a mistake to suppose that the passions are strongest in youth. The passions are not stronger, but the control over them is weaker. They are more easily excited; they are more violent and apparent, but they have less energy, less durability, less intense and concentrated power than in mature life.

Long ago we conquered our passions looking at ourselves in the mirror of eternity.

Your only treasures are those that you carry in your heart.

The truth is that our enjoyments and our evaluations, like our trades, are learned; intensive knowledge, as well as extensive, is acquired. We learn how to value possessions as well as how to make them; our passions, our disgusts, and our ambitions are learned. Just as we have evolved ways of transmuting physical elements from one to another, so we have evolved ways of transmuting experience into meaning.

Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.

We can know nothing of humankind without knowing something of ourselves. Self-knowledge is the property of those people whose passions have their full play, but who ponder over their results.

Collaboration - the ultimate intertwining of skills, passions, and knowledge - is what concocts the most shatterproof forms of changemaking.

Your happiness is at the intersection of your passions and learning from great people.

Your gifts lie in the place where your values, passions and strengths meet. Discovering that place is the first step toward sculpting your masterpiece, Your Life.

He saw the Constitution as the vehicle to keep ecumenical passions in check.

I think I've become more like my mom just because of what we're both interested in, children and teaching and writing.