Quotes About Impulses

Depression is itself destructive, and it breeds destructive impulses: I am easily disappointed in people who don't get it and sometimes make the mistake of telling off those who don't get it and those who have frustrated me. After any given depression, there's the need for a lot of cleanup. I remember that I love friends I had thought of letting go. I try to rebuild what I have wasted.

Sometimes it seems to me that all of life is a struggle to contain the natural impulses of the body and spirit, and that what we call character represents only the degree to which we are successful in this endeavor.

We all nurture impulses which promise freedom from the demands of others, even if that freedom means death.

From the perpetual necessity of consulting the animal faculties, in our provision for the present life, arises the difficulty of withstanding their impulses, even in cases where they ought to be of no weight; for the motions of sense are instantaneous, its objects strike unsought, we are accustomed to follow its directions, and therefore often submit to the sentence without examining the authority of the judge.

If we make the praise or blame of others the rule of our conduct, we shall be distracted by a boundless variety of irreconcilable judgments, be held in perpetual suspense between contrary impulses, and consult forever without determination.

For Americans, Acts 16:9 is the high-fructose corn syrup of Bible verses--an all-purpose ingredient we'll stir into everything from the ink on the Marshall Plan to canisters of Agent Orange. Our greatest goodness and our worst impulses come out of this missionary zeal, contributing to our overbearing (yet not entirely unwarranted) sense of our country as an inherently helpful force in the world. And, as with the apostle Paul, the notion that strangers want our help is sometimes a delusion.

As the victim of those impulses she must be looking in the paper for his obituary.

The most effective self-control is not through willpower and exerting effort to stifle impulses and unwanted behaviors. It comes from effectively harnessing the unconscious powers of the mind to much more easily do the self-control for you.

los impulsos que motivan muchas de nuestras conductas diarias se originan en procesos mentales de los que no somos conscientes, por más que luego podamos comprenderlos con gran rapidez.

You can put your principles into a match-box but what fills the whole room is your instinctive responses.

If sensory recognition worked on the grandmother principle, the number of specific-recognition neurons for all possible combinations of nerve impulses would exceed the number of atoms in the universe.

You must learn to control your impulses,' he said. 'A sword wants to be used. It wants to draw blood. That is why it was forged, and it has no other purpose in the world. If you do not control it, then it will control you.

Good impulses are naught, unless they become good actions.

Traveling is more fun - hell, life is more fun - if you can treat it as a series of impulses.

In place of thoughts it has impulses, habits, and emotions.

Wars demonstrate that our basic impulses have changed little from those of our primitive ancestors, that underneath our civility we are just as uncivilized and savage as ever. Wars show that "our unconscious is just as inaccessible to the idea of our own death, just as murderously inclined towards strangers, just as divided (that is, ambivalent) towards those we love, as was primeval man.

Why did Freud write a book about which he had such doubts? We can only conjecture. Peter Gay wrote that "it is highly plausible that some of the impulses guiding Freud's arguments in Totem and Taboo emerged from his hidden life; in some respects the book represents a round in his never finished wrestling bout with Jacob Freud." Gay also mentions that Freud realized he was "publishing scientific fantasies.

If we dismiss from our minds the prejudice we may have against the Indians we shall be able to more clearly understand the impulses that govern both races.

The nice thing about the zodiac as a system is it is quite comprehensive as a range of impulses and psychological states it can speak about.

Even the determination of what is healthy for your body depends on your goal, your horizon, your energies, your impulses, your errors, and above all on the ideals and phantasms of your soul.

The most current philosophy of life is self-expressionism: "Let yourself go"; "Do whatever you please." Any suggestion of restraining errant impulses is called a masochistic survival of the dark ages. The truth is that the only really self-expressive people in the world are in the insane asylum. They have absolutely no inhibitions, no conventions, and no codes. They are as self-expressive as hell, i.e., in complete disorder.

In the very traits of his temperament, which have a considerable effect on his life of soul, a person bears within him qualities and impulses that have an obvious connection with those of his physical ancestors.

Restraining sexual impulses takes energy, and so does creative work. If you pour energy into your art, you have less available to restrain your libido.

Unfortunately our old reptilian brain didn't get absorbed, it's still in there squashed with the newer models, like a relative you can't get rid of. This ancient brain, developed about 400 million years ago, is called the brain stem; it is the 'duh' part of the brain. It prompts us to mate, kill and eat, which is perfect if you're living in a field or working at Goldman Sachs.