Inspiring Behaviour Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Inspiring Behaviour. Here they are! All 100 of them:

Hark,” he said, his tone very dry. “What stone through yonder window breaks?” Kami yelled up at him, “It is the east, and Juliet is a jerk!” Jared abandoned Shakespeare and demanded, “What do you think you’re doing?” “Throwing a pebble,” said Kami defensively. “Uh… and I’ll pay for the window.” Jared vanished and Kami was ready to start shouting again, when he reemerged with the pebble clenched in his fist. “This isn’t a pebble! This is a rock.” “It’s possible that your behaviour has inspired some negative feelings that caused me to pick a slightly overlarge pebble,” Kami admitted.
Sarah Rees Brennan (Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy, #1))
Truth is not a reward for good behaviour, nor a prize for passing some tests. It cannot be brought about. It is the primary, the unborn, the ancient source of all that is. You are eligible because you are. You need not merit truth. It is your own....Stand still, be quiet.
Nisargadatta Maharaj (I am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)
There is too much negativity in the world. Do your best to make sure you aren't contributing to it.
Germany Kent
Self-leaders are still true leaders even if they have no known followers. True leaders inspire by the influence of their characters and general self-made brands. Leadership is defined by the virtues of one's behaviour.
Israelmore Ayivor
Don't behave like your heart and mind are strangers to you; they are yours, don't depend on others to understand them, you got to understand them.
Amit Kalantri
Tweet others the way you want to be tweeted.
Germany Kent (You Are What You Tweet: Harness the Power of Twitter to Create a Happier, Healthier Life)
Our life stories are largely constructed and without mindfulness can prove destructive.
Rasheed Ogunlaru
Self-leaders do not look for followers because they are busily pursuing their influencial dreams that followers will trace and ask for. Followers look for influence and that can be obtained from self-leaders.
Israelmore Ayivor
When you hand good people possibility, they do great things.
Biz Stone (Things a Little Bird Told Me: Confessions of the Creative Mind)
Victimhood gives us great moral superiority and entitles us to unquestioning sympathy while exempting us from examining any single one of our actions. A victim is utterly devoid of responsibility or blame. This of course leaves us vulnerable as we will carry on engaging in precisely the behaviour which provoked an unacceptable response.
Belinda Brown
When people support you when you have done something wrong. It doesnt mean you are right, but it means those people are promoting their hate , bad behavior or living their bad lives through you.
D.J. Kyos
Be like a snake. Be nice to everyone, unless someone steps on you.
Taylor Swift
You can be in your room and lead people. Just develop your potentials and publicize them and you will see people looking for your product. That is influence; self-made leaders do not look for followers. Followers look for them.
Israelmore Ayivor
I was born free, and that I might live in freedom I chose the solitude of the fields; in the trees of the mountains I find society, the clear waters of the brooks are my mirrors, and to the trees and waters I make known my thoughts and charms. I am a fire afar off, a sword laid aside. Those whom I have inspired with love by letting them see me, I have by words undeceived, and if their longings live on hope—and I have given none to Chrysostom or to any other—it cannot justly be said that the death of any is my doing, for it was rather his own obstinacy than my cruelty that killed him; and if it be made a charge against me that his wishes were honourable, and that therefore I was bound to yield to them, I answer that when on this very spot where now his grave is made he declared to me his purity of purpose, I told him that mine was to live in perpetual solitude, and that the earth alone should enjoy the fruits of my retirement and the spoils of my beauty; and if, after this open avowal, he chose to persist against hope and steer against the wind, what wonder is it that he should sink in the depths of his infatuation? If I had encouraged him, I should be false; if I had gratified him, I should have acted against my own better resolution and purpose. He was persistent in spite of warning, he despaired without being hated. Bethink you now if it be reasonable that his suffering should be laid to my charge. Let him who has been deceived complain, let him give way to despair whose encouraged hopes have proved vain, let him flatter himself whom I shall entice, let him boast whom I shall receive; but let not him call me cruel or homicide to whom I make no promise, upon whom I practise no deception, whom I neither entice nor receive. It has not been so far the will of Heaven that I should love by fate, and to expect me to love by choice is idle. Let this general declaration serve for each of my suitors on his own account, and let it be understood from this time forth that if anyone dies for me it is not of jealousy or misery he dies, for she who loves no one can give no cause for jealousy to any, and candour is not to be confounded with scorn. Let him who calls me wild beast and basilisk, leave me alone as something noxious and evil; let him who calls me ungrateful, withhold his service; who calls me wayward, seek not my acquaintance; who calls me cruel, pursue me not; for this wild beast, this basilisk, this ungrateful, cruel, wayward being has no kind of desire to seek, serve, know, or follow them. If Chrysostom's impatience and violent passion killed him, why should my modest behaviour and circumspection be blamed? If I preserve my purity in the society of the trees, why should he who would have me preserve it among men, seek to rob me of it? I have, as you know, wealth of my own, and I covet not that of others; my taste is for freedom, and I have no relish for constraint; I neither love nor hate anyone; I do not deceive this one or court that, or trifle with one or play with another. The modest converse of the shepherd girls of these hamlets and the care of my goats are my recreations; my desires are bounded by these mountains, and if they ever wander hence it is to contemplate the beauty of the heavens, steps by which the soul travels to its primeval abode.
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Don Quixote)
I arise to face my failures every morning, but I never fail to face them.
Gino Norris (Stress Diary Journal)
The behaviour and attitude of another person's towards you reflect their state of inner self and mindset.
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
The deeds of the light are goodness, righteousness and faithfulness
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
When you are stressed on mind...to pour it out, is the behaviour, most kind!
Sujit Lalwani (Life Simplified!)
Character is just an invention, but it's an invention that serves as both reason and justification for our behaviour. - Broken Verses
Kamila Shamsie
Take care of your manners as seriously as your money.
Amit Kalantri
Let your personality be your profit and not your punishment.
Amit Kalantri
Our life stories are at one and the same time reality, fallacy and fantasy...
Rasheed Ogunlaru
Mirror reflects your outer beauty; behaviour reflects your inner beauty.
Vinita Kinra
Use social media for good and lift others up, not tear them down. Stay on the high road. Keep your peace.
Germany Kent
A “self-leader” is the positively influence you have on yourself and on others without any influence with your titles and positions. You must be able to lead yourself before you can lead others.
Israelmore Ayivor
Be assertive, in speech and in conduct.
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
Funny how money speaks even more loudly than morals in this beautiful, superficial material world.
Rasheed Ogunlaru
Resentment leads to rude behaviour.
Lailah Gifty Akita
Education makes your maths better, not necessarily your manners.
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
He winced at her efforts to mollify him. Why didn't she say she was disgusted with his behaviour, with his long absence, his infrequent superficial letters? And if she did say it - would he defend himself? Would he give reasons, try to explain how meaningless every endeavour seemed to him? No. For then she would start crying again, he would tell her to stop being silly, she would ask for details, and he would tell her to mind her own business.
Rohinton Mistry (A Fine Balance)
Men and boys are constantly portrayed as predatory, sexist, their sense of humour is vilified and their behaviour is regarded as unacceptable. Factor in the constant diet we are fed of men as perpetrators of rape, murder and domestic violence. Boys must wonder whether they will ever be able to do anything right. This must make it painfully difficult for young men and women to build up relations based on honesty, love and trust.
Belinda Brown
We have gone sick by following a path of untrammelled rationalism, male dominance, attention to the visible surface of things, practicality, bottom-line-ism. We have gone very, very sick. And the body politic, like any body, when it feels itself to be sick, it begins to produce antibodies, or strategies for overcoming the condition of dis-ease. And the 20th century is an enormous effort at self-healing. Phenomena as diverse as surrealism, body piercing, psychedelic drug use, sexual permissiveness, jazz, experimental dance, rave culture, tattooing, the list is endless. What do all these things have in common? They represent various styles of rejection of linear values. The society is trying to cure itself by an archaic revival, by a reversion to archaic values. So when I see people manifesting sexual ambiguity, or scarifying themselves, or showing a lot of flesh, or dancing to syncopated music, or getting loaded, or violating ordinary canons of sexual behaviour, I applaud all of this; because it's an impulse to return to what is felt by the body -- what is authentic, what is archaic -- and when you tease apart these archaic impulses, at the very centre of all these impulses is the desire to return to a world of magical empowerment of feeling. And at the centre of that impulse is the shaman: stoned, intoxicated on plants, speaking with the spirit helpers, dancing in the moonlight, and vivifying and invoking a world of conscious, living mystery. That's what the world is. The world is not an unsolved problem for scientists or sociologists. The world is a living mystery: our birth, our death, our being in the moment -- these are mysteries. They are doorways opening on to unimaginable vistas of self-exploration, empowerment and hope for the human enterprise. And our culture has killed that, taken it away from us, made us consumers of shoddy products and shoddier ideals. We have to get away from that; and the way to get away from it is by a return to the authentic experience of the body -- and that means sexually empowering ourselves, and it means getting loaded, exploring the mind as a tool for personal and social transformation. The hour is late; the clock is ticking; we will be judged very harshly if we fumble the ball. We are the inheritors of millions and millions of years of successfully lived lives and successful adaptations to changing conditions in the natural world. Now the challenge passes to us, the living, that the yet-to-be-born may have a place to put their feet and a sky to walk under; and that's what the psychedelic experience is about, is caring for, empowering, and building a future that honours the past, honours the planet and honours the power of the human imagination. There is nothing as powerful, as capable of transforming itself and the planet, as the human imagination. Let's not sell it straight. Let's not whore ourselves to nitwit ideologies. Let's not give our control over to the least among us. Rather, you know, claim your place in the sun and go forward into the light. The tools are there; the path is known; you simply have to turn your back on a culture that has gone sterile and dead, and get with the programme of a living world and a re-empowerment of the imagination. Thank you very, very much.
Terence McKenna (The Archaic Revival)
The world needs more love and Twitter just figured out a way to send 'hearts all over the world'.
Germany Kent
Be Simple Not Naive”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
Self-awareness is developed through practices in focusing your attention on the details of your personality and behaviour.
Dee Waldeck
Nobody's better than you and you're no better than anybody.
Mary Mihalic (Made to Make It)
We Can See The Whole World Around Us Change When We Choose To Replace Fear With Gratitude And Depression With Appreciation”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
To Gain Knowledge One Has To Study Or Hear, But To Gain Wisdom One Has To Observe”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
It’s Much Better To Be Driven By An Inner Sense Of Purpose Than By The Outer Flashy Success”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
To Win Trust Is Bigger Than To Get Love”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
One Thing You Can’t Hide-Is When You’re Crippled Inside”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
Nothing inspires me greater than the silly behaviour and crazy ideas of my best friends...
Mykyta Isagulov
The Struggle To Live What You Are Not Is Not Only Exhausting Physically And Mentally, But Also Disconnects Us From Our True Selves”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
The Small Daily Dose Of Your Actions And Decisions Determines Your Character And Personality”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
We Judge Others By Their Actions, Not Intentions. But We Expect Them To Judge Us By Our Intentions, Not Actions”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
Change is supremely inconvenient, uncomfortable and naturally scary. Yet we only move through life through the process of change, reinvention and renewal, and so bravery is our quintessential rebel for pushing us past our own limiting beliefs and behaviours. Bravery is feeling the fear, immersing yourself into it and through it so you can come out the other side.
Christine Evangelou (Rocks Into Roses: Life Lessons and Inspiration for Personal Growth)
Haydon was more than his model, he was his inspiration, the torch-bearer of a certain kind of English calling which - for the very reason that it was vague and understated and elusive - had made sense of Guillam's life till now.
John Le Carré (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy)
Judah had failed to grasp that God’s loyalty to his own character, and therefore to his own creatures, has serious implications. Some of Judah’s leaders had fallen into thinking that, because their nation had been chosen to play a special role for God in history, it did not really matter how the leaders or the nation behaved. This was dangerously irresponsible and undermined the moral fibre of the people, because it led to the rationalization of corrupt and immoral behaviour that was incompatible with the law of God, albeit widely practised in the surrounding nations.
John C. Lennox (Against the Flow: The inspiration of Daniel in an age of relativism)
There is ONE difference between a successful and unsuccessful people. There is ONE difference between happy and unhappy people. There is ONE difference between wise and unwise people. There is ONE difference between achievers and non-achievers. And that ONE difference is the BEHAVIOUR of an individual. It is neither your education nor your wealth or social status but your BEHAVIOUR that decides your happiness, success and wisdom. Mind your behaviour and it will take care of everything else.
Sanjeev Himachali
Our sacred character develops, when we connect to source of life, the Creator.
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
May the might power of the Holy Spirit renew our thoughts and attitudes.
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
Great stories changed our heart and penetrated our soul.
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
May all people from every nation, find power of God’s grace.
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
The truth is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it".
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
There is always going to be a reason to get irritated by people's behaviour but if you find a reason not to, then you are one step closer to tranquility.
Ojingiri Hannah
If arguing was a sport, I would love to lose it every time to win friends.
Sukant Ratnakar (Quantraz)
Unity is not a myth. It's a progressive action.
Mitta Xinindlu
Without Honesty, Our Hearts Would Be Empty But Still Heavy. With Honesty The Heart Becomes Filled With Rich Love, But Surprisingly It Still Remains Light”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
The Quicksand Of Our Worries can suck us all into it".
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
In Every Relationship There Should Not Be Only Sweet Talks But Timely Feedback As Well”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
When insecurity starts to rub off on you, you begin to lose a sense of belonging.
Chinonye J. Chidolue
Teach your little ones about the rules of decent behaviour. When they grow up, it will be too late to learn.
Eraldo Banovac
We're shameless in overlooking our own faults, but graceless in letting go another's.
Fakeer Ishavardas
Until you are aware in the moment of your thoughts, emotions, words, and behaviour, you will have difficulty making changes in the direction of your life.
Dee Waldeck
To live without any regret is to act right.
Lailah Gifty Akita
Belief influences behaviour.
Lailah Gifty Akita
You are more likely to learn something by finding surprises in your own behaviours than from hearing surprising facts from the behaviour of others
Daniel Kahneman (Thinking, Fast and Slow)
You don't have to change yourself to be in a group, or for it to accept you. If you have to change yourself for its acceptance, then it's not worth your efforts.
Mitta Xinindlu
Often What Comes As Free, Targets Your Choice And Freedom-The Aim Is Not To Get Your Money But You”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
Honesty Means To Know Where You Are But Not To Remain Where You Are!
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
Integrity Means To Do What You Say And Honesty Is To Say What You Do”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
Leadership Is About Care, Not Scare, It’s About Giving, Not Taking”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
God Is Never In Hurry, But He Is Always On Time”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
Looking At The Temporary Situations, We Make Permanent Decisions”!
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
Leadership Is All About Character And Inspiration, And Not Position And Manipulation”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
Humility Makes The Heart Soft And That’s When The Seed Of Love Grows Luxuriantly”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
One Of The Most Agonizing Human Pains Is Sense Of Unworthiness”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
If We Consciously Think Positive, Express Gratitude And Keep Out Negative Thoughts, We’d Always Feel Happy”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
Our Feelings Are Result Of Some Needs That Are Either Met Or Unmet”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
Unfortunately, We Prefer Not To Understand Others Because We Live In The Illusion That We Know Them”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
One May Think That Freedom From All Rules And Obligations Is Liberating, But When We Balance Our Lives With Right Kind Of Activities And Restrictions, We Could Fly Higher”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
Take care of your words, and see how they’ll take care of you.
Ali Khaheshi (HAPPY LIVING: A guide to understand yourself and your behaviours)
Pausing To Breathe Slows You Down Physically, Calms You Mentally And Rejuvenates You Spiritually”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
The Richness Of A Life Centered On Principles And Prayers Help Us Connect To God And His Love”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
Awareness Is The First Critical Step To Release Yourself From The Slavery Of The Mind”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
One Reason Why Many People Suffer In Relationships Is Because They Unrealistically Expect Themselves And The Others To Be Perfect”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
Encouraging Others Is The Best Gift You Can Give To Yourself”.
Vraja Bihari Das (Venugopal Acharya)
The moment you become aware of your automatic behaviours, judging and expecting another human being to live and behave within the stereotypical gender boxes, you cannot go back to being unconscious. This is when you know you are changing
Runa Magnusdottir (The Story of Boxes, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly: The Secret to Human Liberation, Peace and Happiness)
Your words may be heard but your attitude will be felt. Your attitude reveals your character so never try to deceive anyone with mere words. Word/Talk is cheap but character is key. It costs nothing to be authentic. Learn to be a man or woman of substance!
Kemi Sogunle
The term '20/20 vision' implies good if not perfect sight. May the advent of 2020 - a new year, a new decade - see a lifting of the fog which has recently blurred the edges of what can be described as 'acceptable political discourse', and in the process refocus voter attention on the clear need to demand from elected representatives, a display of basic decency and decorum in public life - both of which have been seriously lacking in the behaviour of some high profile politicians on both sides of the pond, on an eye-watering number of occasions. That indeed would be a sight for sore eyes.
Alex Morritt (Impromptu Scribe)
It is equally natural for us to see the man who helps us without seeing Christ behind him. But we must not remain babies. We must go on to recognize the real Giver. It is madness not to. Because, if we do not, we shall be relying on human beings. And that is going to let us down. The best of them will make mistakes; all of them will die. We must be thankful to all the people who have helped us,we must honor them and love them. But never, never pin your whole faith on any human being; not if he is the best and wisest in the whole world. There are lots of nice things you can do with sand; but do not try building a house on it.
C.S. Lewis (MERE CHRISTIANITY (Including The Case for Christianity, Christian Behaviour and Beyond Personality): A Classic of Christian Apologetics and One of the Most Influential Books amongst Evangelicals)
I got interested in the idea that love is often used as a kind of blanket explanation for things. I mean, battered wives, for instance: "Why did you go back to him?" "Oh, I loved him." "Why did you embezzle fifteen million pounds and run away to the other side of the world?" "Oh, well, because I was in love." All that and then you don't ask anything else. I thought if I just say, these people needed love and they found it, then it kind of explained it away. I wanted to look at their behaviour and how love can inspire the best and the very worst in human behaviour but love itself is not behaviour. So I avoided the word 'love' until the very end and it's the last word in the novel. I wanted to explore what people will do when they're in such terrible need of love. If there was a big idea then that was it. Then, of course, I hope that if it's a story worth reading it's the characters themselves who make you want to read it, not the big idea. I don't think a big idea drives a novel usually. Something else has to engage you on a much more kind of personal level.
Morag Joss
You have to be determined on your quest for the fulfilment you need, and while you struggle, living and searching, carry a determined face, heart and spirit more than your inner perseverance. When you're earnestly searching for a job or something valuable in thriving on this life, let determination be your mindset. Have that creativity, resourceful spirit, inquisitive behaviour and resilience matching your gut to succeed in your search.
Angelica Hopes (Landscapes of a Heart, Whispers of a Soul (Speranza Odyssey Trilogy, #1))
Thomas Hobbes said that man is a wolve for anothe one. It seems to me that this became the basic foundation ideology for the Marxians. Though, it seems also inspired in Max Weber's ides, but actually, Weber reject it. According Stjerno, who quote Weber's idea about man (2005, p. 37), that for Weber, action is social when the individual gives it a subjective meaning that takes account of the behaviour of other and lets his ouw course of action, (Weber; 1978 (1922). Social relationship,said Weber, developed when many actors took into account of the hehaviour of the actions of others. A relationship is symmetrical when each actor gives it the same meaning. However, complet symmetry, Weber maintained, Stjerno added, was rare. Generally, the parts of a social relationship orient their actions on a rational basis,zweckrational - goal-oriented, but in part; they are also motivated by their values and sense of duty,(Stjerno, Steinar: 2005)
Steinar Stjernø (Solidarity in Europe: The History of an Idea)
The trick, apparently, is to not even attempt to resist behaviours that you want to change. Instead, notice the urge, and then put a different behaviour there in response to it. Perhaps when you have a crummy day at your job, your urge for pleasure and escapism leads to spending big on beer and pizza and watching inane TV all evening. If you’d like to change this habit, try acknowledging the urge and what cued it, but then invent a response that satisfies that urge in a way that you feel better about. Perhaps eating soup and buttery toast while re-reading a favourite book in bed all evening. Or putting punk rock on your headphones and going for a frenzied walk to a hill you like to watch the sunset from. Invent these substitutions in times when you’re feeling potent and inspired, and once you’ve experienced a pleasure rush from them enough times, they become new habits, and you’ll go to them gladly even when you’re feeling wilted-of-will.
Annie Raser-Rowland (The Art of Frugal Hedonism: A Guide to Spending Less While Enjoying Everything More)
We live in a world where we have to sacrifice our comfort for the sake of others. Where we have to go an extra mile to meet others' needs. Where we have to dig deep in our resources to please others. I have gone out of my comfort zone for some people. Some people have gone out of their comfort zone for me. And I'm grateful. It's life. It's a common thing. There is no right or wrong to this behaviour. We do it because either we want to or that we must. By the way, our self-sacrificing service can be unhealthy to us. Some people burn themselves down trying to keep others warm. Some break their backs trying to carry the whole world. Some break their bones trying to bend backwards for their loved ones. All these sacrifices are, sometimes, not appreciated. Usually we don't thank the people who go out of their comfort zone to make us feel comfortable. Again, although it's not okay, it's a common thing. It's another side of life. To be fair, we must get in touch with our humanity and show gratitude for these sacrifices. We owe it to so many people. And sometimes we don't even realise it. Thanks be to God for forgiving our sins — which we repeat. Thanks to our world leaders and the activists for the work that they do to make our economic life better. Thanks to our teachers, lecturers, mentors, and role models for shaping our lives. Thanks to our parents for their continual sacrifices. Thanks to our friends for their solid support. Thanks to our children, nephews, and nieces. They allow us to practise discipline and leadership on them. Thanks to the doctors and nurses who save our lives daily. Thanks to safety professionals and legal representatives. They protect us and our possessions. Thanks to our church leaders, spiritual gurus and guides, and meditation partners. They shape our spiritual lives. Thanks to musicians, actors, writers, poets, and sportspeople for their entertainment. Thanks to everyone who contributes in a positive way to our society. Whether recognised or not. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!
Mitta Xinindlu
There was a considerable difference between the ages of my parents, but this circumstance seemed to unite them only closer in bonds of devoted affection. There was a sense of justice in my father’s upright mind, which rendered it necessary that he should approve highly to love strongly. Perhaps during former years he had suffered from the late-discovered unworthiness of one beloved, and so was disposed to set a greater value on tried worth. There was a show of gratitude and worship in his attachment to my mother, differing wholly from the doting fondness of age, for it was inspired by reverence for her virtues, and a desire to be the means of, in some degree, recompensing her for the sorrows she had endured, but which gave inexpressible grace to his behaviour to her. Everything was made to yield to her wishes and her convenience. He strove to shelter her, as a fair exotic is sheltered by the gardener, from every rougher wind, and to surround her with all that could tend to excite pleasurable emotion in her soft and benevolent mind.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (Frankenstein: The 1818 Text)
If I could make people feel, just for a day or an hour, what it’s like to love with infiniteness, then they would be animals no longer, but some greater creature, deserving of that title human. I’ve bettered a day though. On earth, they will have it thus: from birth to unavoidable death, a man is pumped so full of love that his eyes bleed rainbows and his mouth a barrel of miracles. His hands will heal then make monuments to commemorate it; they’ll press tight and pray for no man, no god but himself; and his mind… his mind will shower like spring rains. He will steal away from the shadow of ambition. He’ll be his own sun and light up the world with new marvels – be they art, philosophies, science – and in his brightness put the mundane, not himself, in shadows, and how rightfully. Each a captain and a maker, a mark-setter and stealer of shows... Earth’s skies will clap with the thunder of our majesty, not with violence, doubt, confusion, futility, and monotony; anything – anything – but the dull drone of duplication and robo-behaviour.
Richard Ronald Allan (Exit Eleonora)
Presentism, neglect of the future (along with forgetfulness and contempt for the past) is the paradoxical characteristic of a society and elites who have nothing but the words progress, innovation, modernity on their lips in every domain, including the economic. As soon as one is no longer ‘in love’ as depicted in television shows, as soon as sexual desire fades, one separates from one’s current partner. Marrying for superficial reasons, one separates for superficial reasons. Moreover, this compulsive and immature sort of behaviour is found not only in relationships but also in eroticism and sex in general, always under the sign of speed, immediacy, and instant gratification. Conjugal love and even sex are no longer savoured but consumed or indeed devoured, as if by fire. Despite a form of pseudo-maturity demanded in all domains, especially sexual, and an ideology of liberation, Westerners since the 1960s (the baby boom generation to which I belong) have had difficulty proceeding to the psychological stage of adulthood, that of building for the long-term. This is true even in fields very different to those of sex and relationships, and include those of politics and economics. It is the generalised reign of immaturity and improvidence. Marriage is then conceived as a sort of game, and it ends as soon as one blows the final whistle. Unrestrained enjoyment, the slogan of May ‘68,[27] inspired by a cheap, boorish hedonism, has actually passed into our mores.
Guillaume Faye
The difference between passion and addiction is that between a divine spark and a flame that incinerates. Passion is divine fire: it enlivens and makes holy; it gives light and yields inspiration. Passion is generous because it’s not ego-driven; addiction is self-centred. Passion gives and enriches; addiction is a thief. Passion is a source of truth and enlightenment; addictive behaviours lead you into darkness. You’re more alive when you are passionate, and you triumph whether or not you attain your goal. But an addiction requires a specific outcome that feeds the ego; without that outcome, the ego feels empty and deprived. A consuming passion that you are helpless to resist, no matter what the consequences, is an addiction. You may even devote your entire life to a passion, but if it’s truly a passion and not an addiction, you’ll do so with freedom, joy and a full assertion of your truest self and values. In addiction, there’s no joy, freedom or assertion. The addict lurks shame-faced in the shadowy corners of her own existence. I glimpse shame in the eyes of my addicted patients in the Downtown Eastside and, in their shame, I see mirrored my own. Addiction is passion’s dark simulacrum and, to the naïve observer, its perfect mimic. It resembles passion in its urgency and in the promise of fulfillment, but its gifts are illusory. It’s a black hole. The more you offer it, the more it demands. Unlike passion, its alchemy does not create new elements from old. It only degrades what it touches and turns it into something less, something cheaper. Am I happier after one of my self-indulgent sprees? Like a miser, in my mind I recount and catalogue my recent purchases — a furtive Scrooge, hunched over and rubbing his hands together with acquisitive glee, his heart growing ever colder. In the wake of a buying binge, I am not a satisfied man. Addiction is centrifugal. It sucks energy from you, creating a vacuum of inertia. A passion energizes you and enriches your relationships. It empowers you and gives strength to others. Passion creates; addiction consumes — first the self and then the others within its orbit.
Gabor Maté (In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction)