“
you are a horse running alone
and he tries to tame you
compares you to an impossible highway
to a burning house
says you are blinding him
that he could never leave you
forget you
want anything but you
you dizzy him, you are unbearable
every woman before or after you
is doused in your name
you fill his mouth
his teeth ache with memory of taste
his body just a long shadow seeking yours
but you are always too intense
frightening in the way you want him
unashamed and sacrificial
he tells you that no man can live up to the one who
lives in your head
and you tried to change didn't you?
closed your mouth more
tried to be softer
prettier
less volatile, less awake
but even when sleeping you could feel
him travelling away from you in his dreams
so what did you want to do love
split his head open?
you can't make homes out of human beings
someone should have already told you that
and if he wants to leave
then let him leave
you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love.
”
”
Warsan Shire
“
You tried to change didn’t you?
closed your mouth more
tried to be softer
prettier
less volatile, less awake
but even when sleeping you could feel
him travelling away from you in his dreams
so what did you want to do love
split his head open?
you can’t make homes out of human beings
someone should have already told you that
and if he wants to leave
then let him leave
you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love.
”
”
Warsan Shire
“
Quick-loving hearts ... may quickly loathe.
”
”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Sonnets from the Portuguese)
“
Friends and family argue and fight, but it means nothing. It's human nature. Love isn't perfectly patient or kind or sunny. Love is volatile and tempestuous and forgiving.
”
”
Alyssa Day (Atlantis Redeemed (Warriors of Poseidon, #5))
“
Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love adventure, risk, and uncertainty.
”
”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder)
“
Love comes in many forms. It’s not always sweet. Or comfortable. Sometimes it’s selfish and consuming. Volatile.
”
”
Tessa Bailey (Unfixable)
“
You completely redefine my idea of what love is and should be. That it needn't be possessive, volatile or detrimental to your well-being, but can be selfless, gentle and consistent -- and should empower you to pursue your passions. That it should balance and enrich a life, not tear it to pieces.
”
”
Beau Taplin
“
Love is a colorless,volatile Liquid.Love ignites n burns.Love Leaves no residue neither smoke nor ash.Love is a poison masquerading as spirit of Wine
”
”
Anita Nair
“
Love comes in many forms. It’s not always sweet. Or comfortable. Sometimes it’s selfish and consuming. Volatile. It makes choices for you. It demands you obey it, not taking no for an answer. And it’s usually right. It knows you better than you know yourself.
”
”
Tessa Bailey (Unfixable)
“
You tried to change didn’t you?
closed your mouth more
tried to be softer
prettier
less volatile, less awake
but even when sleeping you could feel
him travelling away from you in his dreams
so what did you want to do, love
split his head open?
you can’t make homes out of human beings
someone should have already told you that
and if he wants to leave
then let him leave
you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love.
”
”
Warsan Shire
“
A certain amount of volatility and drama can me healthy and keep things fun and interesting if you're willing at any moment during a fight to say, 'This means nothing. I love you, let's forget about it.
”
”
Anthony Kiedis (Scar Tissue)
“
I need to hear you say it.”
“I love you,” she said. She touched her lips to mine, and then pulled a few inches away. “Now quit being such a baby.”
Once she kissed me, my heart slowed, and every muscle in my body relaxed. How much I needed her terrified me. I couldn’t imagine love was like this for everyone, or men would all be walking around like lunatics the second they were old enough to notice girls.
Maybe it was just me. Maybe it was just me and her. Maybe together we were this volatile entity that would either implode or meld together. Either way, it seemed the moment I met her, my life had been turned upside down. And I didn’t want it any other way.
”
”
Jamie McGuire (Walking Disaster (Beautiful, #2))
“
As love without esteem is capricious and volatile; esteem without love is languid and cold.
”
”
Jonathan Swift
“
And you tried to change, didn’t you? Closed your mouth more. Tried to be softer, prettier, less volatile, less awake…You can’t make homes out of human beings. Someone should have told you that. And if he wants to leave, then let him leave. You are terrifying and strange and beautiful. Something not everyone knows how to love.
”
”
Warsan Shire
“
But then, I’ve always believed love is the most volatile substance in the universe. It erupts, it incinerates, and then it simply flames out. . . .
”
”
S.J. Kincaid (The Diabolic (The Diabolic, #1))
“
Ours is not a love story—we’re too volatile, too explosive for monotony. No, our story comes with a warning. Beware
”
”
Trisha Wolfe (Born, Darkly (Darkly, Madly, #1))
“
Make love to me. Please. I’m dying for it, for you. And therein lay the other major problem. His body was a wreck along with his mind. His past addictions were spinning in desperation and it was taking everything he had to keep from flying apart. The hunger to hurt and be hurt had never been more volatile and each second he didn’t connect with Mercy, it grew worse. But how exactly was a monster cyclone supposed to connect with an angel and not rip her apart in ways that made him feel vile and dirty? Fuck, he never wanted to feel that with her.
”
”
Lucian Bane (Beg For Mercy (Mercy, #3))
“
I was late to understand that chaos and intensity are no subsitute for lasting love, nor are they necessarily an improvement on real life. Normal people are not always boring. On the contrary. Volatility and passion, although often more romantic and enticing, are not intrinsically preferable to a steadiness of experience and feeling about another person.
”
”
Kay Redfield Jamison (An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness)
“
We’d had to find each other to finally understand that love could not be controlled. Predictions, assumptions, and absolutes were illusions. My love for him was volatile, uncontrollable, and overpowering, but…that was love. Love was real.
”
”
Jamie McGuire (Beautiful Redemption (The Maddox Brothers, #2))
“
Love is like magic, volatile, beautiful, and scary.
”
”
Jaymin Eve (Queen Alpha (NYC Mecca, #2))
“
Normal people are not always boring. On the contrary. Volatility and passion, although often more romantic and enticing, are not intrinsically preferable to a steadiness of experience and feeling about another person (nor are they incompatible). These are beliefs, of course, that one has intuitively about friendships and family; they become less obvious when caught up in a romantic life that mirrors, magnifies, and perpetuates one's own mercurial emotional life and temperament. It has been with my pleasure, and not-inconsiderable pain, that I have learned about the possibilities of love - its steadiness and its growth - from my husband, the man with whom I had lived for almost a decade.
”
”
Kay Redfield Jamison (An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness)
“
I couldn’t imagine love was like this for everyone, or men would be walking around like lunatics the second they were old enough to notice girls.
Maybe it was just me. Maybe it was just me and her. Maybe together we were this volatile entity that would either implode or meld together. Either way, it seemed the moment I met her, my life had
been turned upside down. And I didn’t want it any other way.
”
”
Jamie McGuire (Walking Disaster (Beautiful, #2))
“
Thirty years later he could not come to any other conclusion: women were indisputably better than men. They were gentler, more affectionate, more loving and more compassionate, they were rarely violent, selfish, cruel or self-centred. Moreover, they were more rational, more intelligent and more hardworking.
What on earth were men for? Michael wondered as he watched sunlight play across the closed curtains. In earlier times, when bears were more common, perhaps masculinity served a particular function, but for centuries now, men served no useful purpose. For the most part, they assuaged their boredom playing squash, which was a lesser evil; but from time to time they felt the need to change history - which expressed itself in leading a revolution or starting a war somewhere. Aside from the senseless suffering they caused, revolutions and war destroyed the achievements of the past, forcing societies to build again. Without the notion of continuous progress, human evolution took random, irregular and violent turns for which men (with their predilection for risk and danger, their repulsive egotism, their volatile nature and their violent tendencies) were directly to blame. A society of women would be immeasurably superior, tracing a slow, unwavering progression, with no U-turns and no chaotic insecurity, towards a general happiness.
”
”
Michel Houellebecq (The Elementary Particles)
“
And the places she turns up in Jamaica are all the more curious. I remember being at sound-system dances and hearing everyone from Bob Marley Kenny Rogers (yes, Kenny Rogers) to Sade to Yellowman to Beenie Man being blasted at top volume while the crowd danced and drank up a storm. But once the selector (DJ in American parlance) began to play a Celine Dion song, the crowd went buck wild and some people started firing shots in the air.... I also remember always hearing Celine Dion blasting at high volume whenever I passed through volatile and dangerous neighborhoods, so much that it became a cue to me to walk, run or drive faster if I was ever in a neighborhood I didn't know and heard Celine Dion mawking over the airwaves.
”
”
Carl Wilson (Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste)
“
...ideas are definitely unstable, they not only CAN be misused, they invite misuse--and the better the idea the more volatile it is. That's because only the better ideas turn into dogma, and it is this process whereby a fresh, stimulating, humanly helpful idea is changed into robot dogma that is deadly. In terms of hazardous vectors released, the transformation of ideas into dogma rivals the transformation of hydrogen into helium, uranium into lead, or innocence into corruption. And it is nearly as relentless.
The problem starts at the secondary level, not with the originator or developer of the idea but with the people who are attracted by it, who adopt it, who cling to it until their last nail breaks, and who invariably lack the overview, flexibility, imagination, and most importantly, sense of humor, to maintain it in the spirit in which it was hatched. Ideas are made by masters, dogma by disciples, and the Buddha is always killed on the road.
There is a particularly unattractive and discouragingly common affliction called tunnel vision, which, for all the misery it causes, ought to top the job list at the World Health Organization. Tunnel vision is a disease in which perception is restricted by ignorance and distorted by vested interest. Tunnel vision is caused by an optic fungus that multiplies when the brain is less energetic than the ego. It is complicated by exposure to politics. When a good idea is run through the filters and compressors of ordinary tunnel vision, it not only comes out reduced in scale and value but in its new dogmatic configuration produces effects the opposite of those for which it originally was intended.
That is how the loving ideas of Jesus Christ became the sinister cliches of Christianity. That is why virtually every revolution in history has failed: the oppressed, as soon as they seize power, turn into the oppressors, resorting to totalitarian tactics to "protect the revolution." That is why minorities seeking the abolition of prejudice become intolerant, minorities seeking peace become militant, minorities seeking equality become self-righteous, and minorities seeking liberation become hostile (a tight asshole being the first symptom of self-repression).
”
”
Tom Robbins (Still Life with Woodpecker)
“
What we find to love or to hate comes to us as a substitute for something else.
”
”
Paula Marantz Cohen (What Alice Knew: A Most Curious Tale of Henry James & Jack the Ripper)
“
To exist, the triangle demands three complementary elements: love, power and danger. Mixed incautiously, these elements, like those in physics, are volatile and potentially explosive.
”
”
Ruth Harris (Decades (20th Century, #1))
“
It’s impossible not to! Love is volatile. Recalcitrant. Irrepressible. We do our best to tame it, to name it and plan for it and maybe even to contain it between the hours of six and twelve, or if you’re Parisian five and seven, but like much of what is adorable and irresistible in this world it eventually tears free of you and, yes, sometimes you get scratched up in the process.
”
”
Lisa Halliday (Asymmetry)
“
Maybe part of the reason that love becomes such a volatile force in our lives when it’s supposed to be so still and beautiful is that we keep reaching for that forever love. We can’t just let it be what it is. We try to make feelings and interest sustain themselves for years and years when they just don’t have that kind of staying power. But how much of it is a result of our own changing and how much is the fact that forever love comes with so many expectations and too much pressure? What if it’s really that nobody is to blame, other than whoever instilled in us the idea that “forever” was the ultimate kind of love? Because what if we stopped expecting and started just being. I think that’s what scares people. I think they choose to not love someone because of what it means for the long-term instead of having any interspersed bits of love. But those bits might be all we ever have. It’s out of them that the rest grows.
”
”
Brianna Wiest
“
Once she kissed me, my heart slowed, and every muscle in my body relaxed. How much I needed her terrified me. I couldn’t imagine love was like this for everyone, or men would be walking around like lunatics the second they were old enough to notice girls.
Maybe it was just me. Maybe it was just me and her. Maybe together we were this volatile entity that would either implode or meld together. Either way, it seemed the moment I met her, my life had been turned upside down. And I didn’t want it any other way.
”
”
Jamie McGuire (Walking Disaster (Beautiful, #2))
“
Both mother and daughter attempted to free themselves from the stranglehold of polite society, and both struggled to balance their need for love and companionship with their need for independence. They braved the criticism of their peers to write works that took on the most volatile issues of the day. Brave, passionate, and visionary, they broke almost every rule there was to break. Both had children out of wedlock. Both fought against the injustices women faced and both wrote books that revolutionized history.
”
”
Charlotte Gordon (Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley)
“
... but you are always too intense
frightening in the way you want him
unashamed and sacrificial
he tells you that no man can live up to the one who
lives in your head
and you tried to change didn't you?
closed your mouth more
tried to be softer
prettier
less volatile, less awake
but even when sleeping you could feel
him travelling away from you in his dreams
so what did you want to do, love
split his head open?
you can't make homes out of human beings
someone should have already told you that
and if he wants to leave
then let him leave
you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love.
”
”
Warsan Shire
“
Italian men understand and appreciate women of volatile temperament."
"I hate you," she said again, unable to think of anything more vicious to say in the state she was in.
”
”
Lynne Graham (Angel of Darkness)
“
We had scar-tissue
romance and ours was
a relationship of saying
goodbye—every time
we fought, every time
we fucked, and every time
we called it quits, before
picking up our knives
again
”
”
Phil Volatile (Crushed Black Velvet)
“
Please, be kind to yourself. Please love yourself. Please work through your fears (dive deep), your insecurities (speak loudly), your anger (scream into the ground, the ocean, your pillow – not into the mirror, nor at your parents, nor at your friends, your lover, your neighbours, your dog. They don’t deserve it.) The ocean and the Earth can handle your anger. They are as volatile. Powerful. Inherently energetic. So are you. Don’t numb yourself. Don’t kill yourself. We need you. We need your love, your generosity, your joy, your bright, bright, light.
”
”
Sophie Ward
“
Is it any wonder, given the volatility of sibling love, that we might feel anger at a brother or a sister for dying? How dare they die and leave us! We feel angry, but there is no recourse, so we usually end up feeling guilty. We
”
”
T.J. Wray (Surviving the Death of a Sibling: Living Through Grief When an Adult Brother or Sister Dies)
“
Madness, on the other hand, most certainly can, and often does, kill love through its mistrustfulness, unrelenting pessimism, discontents, erratic behavior, and, especially, through its savage moods. The sadder, sleepier, slower, and less volatile depressions are more intuitively understood and more easily taken in stride. A quiet melancholy is neither threatening nor beyond ordinary comprehension; an angry, violent, vexatious despair is both.
”
”
Kay Redfield Jamison (An Unquiet Mind)
“
My aches have aches
”
”
Phil Volatile (White Wedding Lies, and Discontent: An American Love Story)
“
Feelings are never immaterial,’ said Elizabeth. ‘The more you try to hide them, the more volatile they become.
”
”
Erica Ridley (The Perks of Loving a Wallflower (The Wild Wynchesters, #2))
“
Fall in love with the divine, because the mundane love is as volatile as the trust of people who practice it.
”
”
Girdhar Joshi (Some Mistakes Have No Pardon)
“
Fear is the vehicle in which love can do its worst.
”
”
Phil Volatile (Crushed Black Velvet)
“
Adios
Her pretty picture
lying on the
ground was like
the toppling
of some
fascist
regime
And burning
the photograph,
was the
celebration
”
”
Phil Volatile (Crushed Black Velvet)
“
because they had been an emotional, volatile couple, and had fought as passionately as they’d loved.
”
”
Gena Showalter (Wicked Nights (Angels of the Dark, #1))
“
I’ve come to know him well, and have discovered that shrouded behind his touchy and volatile exterior, there crouches a warm and considerate human being, crying out to be valued and loved
”
”
Karl Wiggins (Grit: The Banter and Brutality of the Late-Night Cab)
“
I could see that others had confused her disorganized passion for volatility. In reality, she was a scrumptious mess; deliciously majestic. She was on her way to great things in this life.
”
”
Steve Maraboli
“
Either way, the anger will come out onto us because we are his safety net, and therefore his target. We are the ones who will never leave. We are the ones who can take the arrows because we love our sons when no one else will, and they know it. And we will always be there when they return, regardless of how volatile the wars have been. How blessed we are to be the mothers of sons.
”
”
Meg Meeker (Strong Mothers, Strong Sons: Lessons Mothers Need to Raise Extraordinary Men)
“
The beauty of love lies in the fact that it’s volatile, impulsive, and sporadic. The subject of our affection changes but the rush of emotions that feed our deepest desires and insecurities remain the same.
”
”
Shilpi Chaklanobis (That's How It's Meant To Be)
“
When he's not with me I feel less than whole. But the volatility of our relationship makes me wonder how much of that is what I want him to be, as opposed to what he actually is. If the idea of him is more fulfilling than being with him.
”
”
Melanie A. Smith (All of Me (The Safeguarded Heart #2))
“
Should that be enough for her? Was she wrong to want passion? To dream of something—someone—more? She’d always imagined love to be turbulent and volatile, an emotion that would sweep her up and break her to pieces and reshape her into someone she couldn’t otherwise have become.
”
”
Kristin Hannah (True Colors)
“
Through her union with Hadit the soul contracts; she withdraws from the volatility of sensory perceptions to be stabilised or alchemically “fixed” as a star in the body of Nuit. Thus, the way is open for the soul to partake of the joys of Nuit, infinitely expanding in her divine ecstasy and love.
”
”
Sophie di Jorio (The Ending of the Words : Magical Philosophy of Aleister Crowley)
“
Sitting now...with my eyes wide open...I am simply amazed about human nature and its volatility...I am a killer. I am so aggressive. No, I am a lover. Love is the key. Acctually...I am a poet. And a pragmatic business woman. I was sad. And angry. But I am enthusiastic. I wanted to be a man. But I love being a woman.
”
”
Dragotel Viorica
“
Gilbert was always saying that he loved people. He needed them around him. He was always saying that he loved me, and I imagine he honestly believed this, though of course his handling of my career reflected favorably on himself. Love never did mean quite the same thing in the entertainment business as in less volatile circles.
”
”
John P. Marquand (Melville Goodwin, USA)
“
I was late to understand that chaos and intensity are no substitute for lasting love, nor are they necessarily an improvement on real life... Volatility and passion, although often more romantic and enticing, are not intrinsically preferable to a steadiness of experience and feeling about another person (nor are they incompatible).
”
”
Kay Redfield Jamison (An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness)
“
And you tried to change, didn't you?
Closed your mouth more. Tried to be
softer, prettier, less volatile, less
awake... You can't make homes out of
human beings. Someone should have
already told you that. And if he wants to
leave, then let him leave. You are
terrifying, and strange, and beautiful.
Something not everyone knows how to
love.
”
”
Warsan Shire
“
Sitting now...with my eyes wide open and full with amazement...I m realising that there is nothing else more volatile in this universe than human nature. I am a killer? No. I am a lover. I am a lover? No, a pragmatic poet bussines woman. I am happy. Yes. And angry. One second ago, I was sad. Now I am enthusiastic. I wanted to be a man. But I love being a woman.
”
”
Dragotel Viorica
“
Sleep is divine but by no means stable; the slightest shock makes it volatile. A friend to habit, it is kept night after night in tis appointed place by habit, more steadfast than itself, protected from any possible disturbance; but if it is displaced, if it is no longer subjugated, it melts away like a vapour. It is like youth and love, never to be recaptured.
”
”
Marcel Proust (The Captive / The Fugitive (In Search of Lost Time, #5-6))
“
Learning became her. She loved the smell of the books, the shelves, the type on the pages, the sense that the world was an infinite but knowable place. Every fact she learned seemed to open another question, and for every question there was another book. She learned the card catalog. She never learned more than she needed to know. She read romantic novels and she imagined that the men and women at the reading tables around her were the subject of the books. Happy passionate lives, so simple it seemed for others. She read Jane Austen, Thackeray, Dickens, stories in which the lives of the tattered poor turned out to be blissful in the end. She read about the capitals of the world, the cathedrals and minarets, the broad avenues, and the volatile and ever-expanding world of science.
”
”
Robert Goolrick (A Reliable Wife)
“
With all that had passed between him and Rick, the friendship felt constantly volatile in his hands, like unstable explosive. Yet even with Kaylyn standing there in the water, looking as gorgeous and iridescent as a dragonfly, he felt a surge of love and regret unlike anything he’d experienced before. Because they were just kids, and that day they drank and they danced and they laughed at the sky-blue heavens, and it really felt like anything could be fixed and anything could be forgiven.
”
”
Stephen Markley (Ohio)
“
Fear People When we grow up under volatile, immature, chaotic, and selfish family members, we are nurtured to believe that people are scary and cruel. And when we are raised to question our lovability and worth, how can we trust that others will see us as worthy? Because conflict was so high growing up in our toxic family, many of us learned to agree with the poisonous dynamics as a way to find or keep the peace. We may have also lived our lives trying to please and prove our value to our parents.
”
”
Sherrie Campbell (But It's Your Family . . .: Cutting Ties with Toxic Family Members and Loving Yourself in the Aftermath)
“
Divinity
Somedays it was the sun & moon
Somedays it was a happy place
Other days it was love with the volatility of iodine
Which one has to let go
But perhaps it was the different ways
I gave myself to you
As I longed you in ways insane
Somedays it was the reciprocation
Somedays it was the protest
Other days it's the admiration
Pinching me as I flip through you
But perhaps it was the person unknown
I tied my cares to
As I wished all my blessing onto you
~ Seiji Amasawa ( Snow Patrol )
”
”
~
“
Divinity
Somedays it was the sun & moon
Somedays it was a happy place
Other days it was love with the volatility of iodine
Which one has to let go
But perhaps it was the different ways
I gave myself to you
As I longed you in ways insane
Somedays it was the reciprocation
Somedays it was the protest
Other days it's the admiration
Pinching me as I flip through you
But perhaps it was the person unknown
I tied my cares to
As I wished all my blessing onto you
~ Seiji Amasawa ( Snow Patrol )
”
”
Me.......
“
His performance was also intensely visual, with his volatile movements in front of the piano, and his cries and wild vocal accompaniment to his playing, all of which spoke eloquently of his extraordinary passion for the instrument and the music he coaxed, tickled and sometimes pounded out of him. Many critics were put off by all this, thinking it was a mere outward show- and therefore insincere. In fact it is an essential part of music-making for Jarrett, his way of achieving his state of grace… the ecstasy of inspiration. Miles Davis understood that immediately, and so did most other musicians. Jack DeJohonette says: “The one thing that struck me about Keith, that made him stand out from other players, was that he really has a love affair with the piano, it’s a relationship with that instrument… Keith’s hands are actually quire small but because of that he can do things that a person like myself, or other pianists with normal hand spans, can’t do… it enables him to overlap certain chord sequences and do rhythmic things and contrapuntal lines and get these effects of like, four people playing the piano… But I’ve never seen anybody just have such a rapport with their instrument and know its limitations but also push them to the limits, transcend the instrument – which is what I try and do with the drums as well.
”
”
Ian Carr (Keith Jarrett: The Man And His Music)
“
Let’s now look at the four basic types of EI parents (Gibson 2015): Emotional parents are dominated by feelings and can become extremely reactive and overwhelmed by anything that surprises or upsets them. Their moods are highly unstable, and they can be frighteningly volatile. Small things can be like the end of the world, and they tend to see others as either saviors or abandoners, depending on whether their wishes are being met. Driven parents are super goal-achieving and constantly busy. They are constantly moving forward, focused on improvements, and trying to perfect everything, including other people. They run their families like deadline projects but have little sensitivity to their children’s emotional needs. Passive parents are the nicer parents, letting their mate be the bad guy. They appear to enjoy their children but lack deeper empathy and won’t step in to protect them. While they seem more loving, they will acquiesce to the more dominant parent, even to the point of overlooking abuse and neglect. Rejecting parents aren’t interested in relationships. They avoid interaction and expect the family to center around their needs, not their kids. They don’t tolerate other people’s needs and want to be left alone to do their own thing. There is little engagement, and they can become furious and even abusive if things don’t go their way.
”
”
Lindsay C. Gibson (Recovering from Emotionally Immature Parents: Practical Tools to Establish Boundaries & Reclaim Your Emotional Autonomy)
“
But Hannah's friend didn’t understand the volatile balancing act between art and sanity, that the act of creation was like walking a tightrope during an earthquake. She didn’t understand Hannah’s stupid need for validation, or that the size of the audience increased the stakes and multiplied the fear. She didn’t understand that creativity was dangerous, that, yes, there were some people who could stand before a canvas, paint a sunset that would bring the world to its knees, and return to their loved ones as a complete person who didn’t hurt, didn’t cry, didn’t spill blood to appease the host of fickle muses. But Hannah did. Hannah’s best ideas—sometimes her only ideas—were buried beneath the skin.
”
”
Jake Vander-Ark (The Day I Wore Purple)
“
It is true that a moment earlier, before Françoise had appeared, I had thought that I no longer loved Albertine, believing that I had taken everything into account, that I was completely lucid and that I had plumbed the depths of my heart. But however great our intelligence, it cannot conceive all the elements that constitute it and which remain undetected as long as no event capable of isolating them makes them start to solidify out of the volatile state in which they exist for most of the time. I was mistaken when I thought that I saw clearly into my heart. But this knowledge, which the finest insights of my intellect had not given me, had just been brought home to me, as hard, dazzling and strange as crystals of salt, through the sudden stimulus of pain.
”
”
Marcel Proust (The Fugitive: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 6 (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition))
“
That moment changed me on a core level. I can see that cracked O-ring as clearly as I can see the world in front of me. I wake up every morning, and I remind myself how futile it all is. You can do everything right, try to be good, try to do good, and sometimes it won’t matter. Your O-ring gets a crack in it, and you die before you have time to panic. A nothing part, ignored until it’s broken, and then you’re dead. You and everyone you love just cease to be. That’s how close life and death are. Not just here, in space or on a volatile planet. Everywhere. Everywhere in the universe, you’re one cracked O-ring away from total failure. And we all just go through each day, ignoring that. Pretending like we don’t see the cracks. Like the cracks aren’t going to break all the way.
”
”
Beth Revis (Full Speed to a Crash Landing (Chaotic Orbits #1))
“
She gives just enough hints about him to make you wonder why he became so villainous. And if he dies, I’ll never learnt the answer.”
Oliver eyes her closely. “Perhaps he was born villainous.”
“No one is born villainous.”
“Oh?” he said with raised eyebrow. “So we’re all born good?”
“Neither. We start as animals, with an animal’s needs and desires. It takes parents and teachers and other good examples to show us how to restrain those needs and desires, when necessary, for the greater good. But it’s still our choice whether to heed that education or to do as we please.”
“For a woman who loves murder and mayhem, you’re quite the philosopher.”
“I like to understand how things work. Why people behave as they do.”
He digested that for a moment. “I happen to think that some of us, like Rockton, are born with a wicked bent.”
She chose her words carefully. “That certainly provides Rockton with a convenient excuse for his behavior.”
His features turned stony. “What do you mean?”
“Being moral and disciplined is hard work. Being wicked requires no effort at all-one merely indulges every desire and impulse, no matter how hurtful or immoral. By claiming to be born wicked, Rockton ensures that he doesn’t have to struggle to be god. He can just protest that he can’t help himself.”
“Perhaps he can’t,” he clipped out.
“Or maybe he’s simply unwilling to fight his impulses. And I want to know the reason for that. That’s why I keep reading Minerva’s books.”
Did Oliver actually believe he’d been born irredeemably wicked? How tragic! It lent a hopelessness to his life that helped to explain his mindless pursuit of pleasure.
“I can tell you the reason for Rockton’s villainy.” Oliver rose to round the desk. Propping his hip on the edge near her, he reached out to tuck a tendril of hair behind her ear.
A sweet shudder swept over her. Why must he have this effect on her? It simply wasn’t fair. “Oh?” she managed.
“Rockton knows he can’t have everything he wants,” he said hoarsely, his hand drifting to her cheek. “He can’t have the heroine, for example. She would never tolerate his…wicked impulses. Yet he still wants her. And his wanting consumes him.”
Her breath lodged in her throat. It had been days since he’d touched her, and she hadn’t forgotten what it was like for one minute. To have him this near, saying such things…
She fought for control over her volatile emotions. “His wanting consumes him precisely because he can’t have her. If he thought he could, he wouldn’t want her after all.”
“Not true.” His voice deepening, he stroked the line of her jaw with a tenderness that roused an ache in her chest. “Even Rockton recognizes when a woman is unlike any other. Her very goodness in the face of his villainy bewitches him. He thinks if he can just possess that goodness, then the dark cloud lying on his soul will lift, and he’ll have something other than villainy to sustain him.”
“Then he’s mistaken.” Her pulse trebled as his finger swept the hollow of her throat. “The only person who can lift the dark cloud on his soul is himself.”
He paused in his caress. “So he’s doomed, then?”
“No!” Her gaze flew to his. “No one is doomed, and certainly not Rockton. There’s still hope for him. There is always hope.”
His eyes burned with a feverish light, and before she could look away, he bent to kiss her. It was soft, tender…delicious. Someone moaned, she wasn’t sure who. All she knew was that his mouth was on hers again, molding it, tasting it, making her hungry in the way that only he seemed able to do.
“Maria…” he breathed. Seizing her by the arms, he drew her up into his embrace. “My God, I’ve thought of nothing but you since that day in the carriage.
”
”
Sabrina Jeffries (The Truth About Lord Stoneville (Hellions of Halstead Hall, #1))
“
Nothing is isolated. Do one thing, however small, and it will affect something else on the other side of the world"
"But the surest way to slow your own progress is to rush yourself into situations you’re not yet ready for.”"
"When you’re pushed to extreme fear or anger, your body magnifies your energy tenfold, sometimes a hundredfold. It isn’t like this for everyone"
“I was wrong. Passion is bright and warm . . . but passion has a dark side too. It links with fear. Our hearts fill with terror at the thought of harm coming to our loved ones, don’t they? You cannot have love without fear. The two coexist. In you, your alignment with passion instead fed your fear and fury. It made you darker. The more you love someone, the more unsteady your powers become. Your growing passion for Enzo made you volatile. It led to you losing control over your powers, powers that had grown to dangerous strengths. That, coupled with your anger and bitterness, has made you incredibly unpredictable.
”
”
Marie Lu (The Young Elites (The Young Elites, #1))
“
This bold energetic man of rare intelligence and enterprise must also be understood as a man undone by his own deep flaws. He was known to drink to grievous excess, for example, which often turned him volatile and violent. On the other hand, his evil repute has been wildly exaggerated by careless journalists and their local informants, who seek to embellish their limited acquaintance with a “desperado”; with the result that the real man has been virtually entombed by tale and legend which since his death has petrified as myth. The most lurid view of Mr. Watson is the one perpetuated by the Islanders themselves, for as Dickens observed after his visit to this country, “These Americans do love a scoundrel.” Because his informants tend to imagine that the darkest interpretation is the one the writer wishes to hear, the popular accounts (until now, there have been no others) are invariably sensational as well as speculative: the hard facts, not to speak of “truth,” are missing. Also, this “Bloody Watson” material relates only to his final years in southwest Florida; one rarely encounters any reference to South Carolina, where Edgar Artemas Watson passed his boyhood, nor to the years in the Indian Country (always excepting his alleged role in the slaying of Belle Starr), nor even to the Fort White district of Columbia County in north Florida where he farmed in early manhood, married all three of his wives, and spent almost half of the fifty-five years of his life.
”
”
Peter Matthiessen (Shadow Country)
“
Having studied workplace leadership styles since the 1970s, Kets de Vries confirmed that language is a critical clue when determining if a company has become too cultish for comfort. Red flags should rise when there are too many pep talks, slogans, singsongs, code words, and too much meaningless corporate jargon, he said. Most of us have encountered some dialect of hollow workplace gibberish. Corporate BS generators are easy to find on the web (and fun to play with), churning out phrases like “rapidiously orchestrating market-driven deliverables” and “progressively cloudifying world-class human capital.” At my old fashion magazine job, employees were always throwing around woo-woo metaphors like “synergy” (the state of being on the same page), “move the needle” (make noticeable progress), and “mindshare” (something having to do with a brand’s popularity? I’m still not sure). My old boss especially loved when everyone needlessly transformed nouns into transitive verbs and vice versa—“whiteboard” to “whiteboarding,” “sunset” to “sunsetting,” the verb “ask” to the noun “ask.” People did it even when it was obvious they didn’t know quite what they were saying or why. Naturally, I was always creeped out by this conformism and enjoyed parodying it in my free time. In her memoir Uncanny Valley, tech reporter Anna Wiener christened all forms of corporate vernacular “garbage language.” Garbage language has been around since long before Silicon Valley, though its themes have changed with the times. In the 1980s, it reeked of the stock exchange: “buy-in,” “leverage,” “volatility.” The ’90s brought computer imagery: “bandwidth,” “ping me,” “let’s take this offline.” In the twenty-first century, with start-up culture and the dissolution of work-life separation (the Google ball pits and in-office massage therapists) in combination with movements toward “transparency” and “inclusion,” we got mystical, politically correct, self-empowerment language: “holistic,” “actualize,” “alignment.
”
”
Amanda Montell (Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism)
“
His mouth brushed over hers with kisses of soft fire. And as he possessed her, she gradually came to understand the pattern he was working within her… eight shallow thrusts, two deep… seven shallow, three deep… progressing until he finally gave her ten heavy, penetrating plunges. Lottie cried out with wrenching pleasure, her hips lifting against his sleek weight as she was filled with volatile sensation. When the burning delight had begun to fade, Nick altered their positions subtly, moving farther over her, nudging her knees wider, adjusting the angle of his sex. He thrust deeply, sealing their bodies together, and circled his hips in a slow, steady rhythm.
“I can’t,” Lottie said breathlessly, realizing what he wanted, knowing that it was impossible.
“Let me,” Nick whispered, tireless and wickedly adept as he continued the gentle circling, using his body to pleasure her.
She was astonished by how quickly the heat rose again, her senses welcoming the patient stimulation, her sex turning slick and swollen as he moved inside her, over her, against her. “Oh… oh…” The sounds were torn from her throat as she reached another crest, her limbs jerking, her cheek pressed hard against his shoulder.
And then he began the entire cycle again. Nine shallow, one deep…
Lottie lost count of how many times he brought her to ecstasy, or how much time passed while he made love to her. He whispered in her ear… endearments… intimate praise… telling her how hard she made him… how sweet she felt around him… how much he wanted to satisfy her. He gave her more pleasure than it seemed possible to bear, until finally she begged him to stop, her body trembling with exhaustion.
Nick complied with reluctance, pushing deep inside one last time, releasing his pent-up desire with a shuddering groan. Compulsively he kissed her again, as he withdrew from her sated body. Lottie barely had the strength to lift her hand, but she caught at his arm and murmured thickly, “Will you stay?”
“Yes,” she heard him say. “Yes.”
-Lottie & Nick
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Worth Any Price (Bow Street Runners, #3))
“
signs of identity disturbance, being impulse ridden, unstable in love relations, and she can become intensely volatile and angry.
”
”
M. William Phelps (Obsessed)
“
No solution will be found by accepting powerlessness or poverty as inevitable, irreplaceable social features. The failure of the system to answer the issues we now confront is the root of social anxiety. One can say, with some confidence, that those who are shaping the dominant discourse do not care nearly enough. Because of the inverted and vacuous leadership we now have, we can only be sure of change if we, as individuals, are prepared to confront the shadow of our subconscious agendas and biases elusive to our awareness. Violence is the volatile unmasking of things not confronted, nor encountered with reason or love.
Louis D. Lo Praeste. Vague Apocalyptica (Kindle Locations 411-415). Snow Creek Press.
”
”
Louis Prowe
“
Christopher.
It seemed the entire world stopped.
Beatrix tried to compare the man standing before her with the cavalier rake he had once been. But it seemed impossible that he could be the same person. No longer a god descending from Olympus... now a warrior hardened by bitter experience.
His complexion was a deep mixture of gold and copper, as if he had been slowly steeped in sun. The dark wheaten locks of his hair had been cut in efficiently short layers. His face was impassive, but something volatile was contained in the stillness.
How bleak he looked. How alone.
She wanted to run to him. She wanted to touch him. The effort of standing motionless caused her muscles to tremble in protest.
She heard herself speak in a voice that wasn't quite steady. "Welcome home, Captain Phelan."
He was silent, staring at her without apparent recognition. Dear Lord, those eyes... frost and fire, his gaze burning through her awareness.
"I'm Beatrix Hathaway," she managed to say. "My family-"
"I remember you."
The rough velvet of his voice was a pleasure-stroke against her ears. Fascinated, bewildered, Beatrix stared at his guarded face.
To Christopher Phelan, she was a stranger. But the memories of his letters were between them, even if he wasn't aware of it.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Love in the Afternoon (The Hathaways, #5))
“
THREE WEEKS LATER I sat in the chill waiting room, picked up one of those magazines that are always telling you how to “surprise your man” during sex—as if what the volatile male animal needs is to be surprised while he’s inside you—and looked at a perfume ad of a sparkling white horse appearing to make love to a woman on the beach. Such wonderful art was everywhere in the world.
”
”
Patricia Lockwood (Priestdaddy: A Memoir)
“
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Unfortunately, most Americans do not know much about Social Security. They know even less about how to maximize the benefits that may help sustain them throughout retirement.
Whether you are depending upon Social Security to make a significant impact on your retirement income or just a part of your entire financial portfolio, it would be wise to understand which claiming options are available to get the most out of your Social Security income.
Even in these tough times and volatile markets, we help our clients take a comprehensive approach to their retirement planning. We offer a complimentary service that we call Social Security Maximization or SSI Max. There are hundreds of ways to claim your Social Security, but which one is right for you and your family? One simple mistake or misjudgment of the program can cost you thousands of dollars that you rightfully deserve. Download our free eBook: 4 Myths about Social Security Income to learn a few common misconceptions about Social Security Income.
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”
”
Annette Wise
“
If poetry had a taste, it’d taste like you— sweet and sour,
”
”
Phil Volatile (White Wedding Lies, and Discontent: An American Love Story)
“
My mind is in a constant state of anarchy because I can’t quell my heart’s uprising.
”
”
Phil Volatile (White Wedding Lies, and Discontent: An American Love Story)
“
it’s too much fun trying to avoid the burn, instead of waiting for my life to take a turn
”
”
Phil Volatile (White Wedding Lies, and Discontent: An American Love Story)
“
Things weren’t always this awkward, just lately, but I guess the closer to death, there’s a need, a need to set things right by me; for two decades lost, I’ll never see, or for other reasons unbeknownst to me I wish I didn’t feel so much grief; every time I see you, I wish I could leave But I guess you were the best father you could be to someone like me And I tell you all these things in books, you’ll never read
”
”
Phil Volatile (White Wedding Lies, and Discontent: An American Love Story)
“
Which coffee drink Which shirt to bring I’ll tell you how to think I’ll tell you what to dream
”
”
Phil Volatile (White Wedding Lies, and Discontent: An American Love Story)
“
When did loving her become a chore? When did my love, become a revolving door?
”
”
Phil Volatile (White Wedding Lies, and Discontent: An American Love Story)
“
And I do acknowledge all of my screw-ups, but not everything on my side began with tulips
”
”
Phil Volatile (White Wedding Lies, and Discontent: An American Love Story)
“
But in this age of associates degrees and extra cheese— the world is watching, and so is my family—
”
”
Phil Volatile (White Wedding Lies, and Discontent: An American Love Story)
“
One of the problems of being a man is that there’s never ever truly a moment’s peace, so maybe that does extend from Adam and Eve The issue is that you’re always on the alert, pondering possibilities, planning escape routes, practicing routines
”
”
Phil Volatile (White Wedding Lies, and Discontent: An American Love Story)
“
Damn this world for ignoring it’s best and brightest, making pacifists poets out of us all.
”
”
Phil Volatile (White Wedding Lies, and Discontent: An American Love Story)
“
How much longer can you keep up the act? Maybe people are just one more lie away from telling the truth.
”
”
Phil Volatile (White Wedding Lies, and Discontent: An American Love Story)
“
And it’s too bad that I’m pretty, and not brave, because there’s not much else men can do for women, nowadays
”
”
Phil Volatile (White Wedding Lies, and Discontent: An American Love Story)
“
Bukowski once said that it terrifies some people to write, and it is painful and dangerous to “expose one’s ass on paper” because it opens one up to the slings and arrows of criticism and the scrutiny of one's soul. So while you read this book, think of the courage it took to write it. Then think of the courage it took to publish it. Then read it again. —Raegan Butcher October 4th, 2013
”
”
Phil Volatile (White Wedding Lies, and Discontent: An American Love Story)
“
I could feel it in her, that volatile tenderness that could never forget injury. It was her weakness, her flaw-- that she would never confront, but would implacably withdraw. I know you felt it too, that predisposition in her-- and that that, in fact, was one of the reasons for the intensity of your love for her, was why all men loved her, because you could feel her soul through her flesh, completely feminine, incommensurable, urging toward you or recoiling from you with equal ferocity.
”
”
Naeem Murr (The Boy)
“
Look at stocks as part ownership of a business. 2. Look at Mr. Market—volatile stock price fluctuations—as your friend rather than your enemy. View risk as the possibility of permanent loss of purchasing power, and uncertainty as the unpredictability regarding the degree of variability in the possible range of outcomes. 3. Remember the three most important words in investing: “margin of safety.” 4. Evaluate any news item or event only in terms of its impact on (a) future interest rates and (b) the intrinsic value of the business, which is the discounted value of the cash that can be taken out during its remaining life, adjusted for the uncertainty around receiving those cash flows. 5. Think in terms of opportunity costs when evaluating new ideas and keep a very high hurdle rate for incoming investments. Be unreasonable. When you look at a business and get a strong desire from within saying, “I wish I owned this business,” that is the kind of business in which you should be investing. A great investment idea doesn’t need hours to analyze. More often than not, it is love at first sight. 6. Think probabilistically rather than deterministically, because the future is never certain and it is really a set of branching probability streams. At the same time, avoid the risk of ruin, when making decisions, by focusing on consequences rather than just on raw probabilities in isolation. Some risks are just not worth taking, whatever the potential upside may be. 7. Never underestimate the power of incentives in any given situation. 8. When making decisions, involve both the left side of your brain (logic, analysis, and math) and the right side (intuition, creativity, and emotions). 9. Engage in visual thinking, which helps us to better understand complex information, organize our thoughts, and improve our ability to think and communicate. 10. Invert, always invert. You can avoid a lot of pain by visualizing your life after you have lost a lot of money trading or speculating using derivatives or leverage. If the visuals unnerve you, don’t do anything that could get you remotely close to reaching such a situation. 11. Vicariously learn from others throughout life. Embrace everlasting humility to succeed in this endeavor. 12. Embrace the power of long-term compounding. All the great things in life come from compound interest.
”
”
Gautam Baid (The Joys of Compounding: The Passionate Pursuit of Lifelong Learning, Revised and Updated (Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing Series))
“
She labeled me well enough, calling me an idealist with volatile tendencies and someone who struggles with a mundane existence. She called me impulsive, impatient, and imaginative, a restless being who needs freedom to flourish and love to thrive.
”
”
Charissa Weaks (The Witch Collector (Witch Walker #1))
“
Love was no mathematical equation with absolute answers. It could be volatile and hard and it could make you bleed.
”
”
Nalini Singh (Archangel's Lineage (Guild Hunter, #16))
“
Love is not a permanent feeling. It’s like astatine, the most volatile element on the periodic table. Always changing and never settling. There’s no such thing as soulmates, and anyone who believes in that fairy tale is setting themselves up for disappointment. Love is a fleeting emotion, a temporary high that inevitably fades away, leaving nothing but the bitter aftertaste of broken promises and shattered dreams.
”
”
Kendall Hale (Knot Really Engaged (Happily Ever Mishaps, #2))
“
I have bad news for you, Bethany. I am not a good man. Please don't get it in your head that I am. I love Elena and I would do absolutely anything for her. Anything. That makes me the worst kind of man. Love is the most volatile poison in the universe. I'm not a saint by any stretch of the imagination, but I make you a promise on my life, that Elena will always be safe with me, even if it costs me everything in the end.
”
”
Ariel N. Anderson (Under Your Scars (Under Your Scars #1))
“
It was one of many briskly written yet impactful mission statements in Palahniuk’s book, which earned positive reviews from a few major critics—the Washington Post called it “a volatile, brilliantly creepy satire”—as well as the author’s own father. “He loved it,” Palahniuk says. “Just like my boss thought I was writing about his boss, my dad thought I was writing about his dad. It was the first time we really connected.
”
”
Brian Raftery (Best. Movie. Year. Ever.: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen)
“
Essayist and critic Wendell Berry, in his book Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community (New York: Pantheon, 1994), takes aim at a premise beneath much of today’s hostility to the Christian ethic—namely, the assumption that sex is private, and what I do in the privacy of my bedroom with another consenting adult is strictly my own business. Thinkers like Berry retort that this claim appears on the surface to be broad minded but is actually very dogmatic. That is, it is based on a set of philosophical assumptions that are not neutral at all but semi-religious and have major political implications. In particular, it is based on a highly individualistic understanding of human nature. Berry writes, “Sex is not, nor can it be any individual’s ‘own business,’ nor is it merely the private concern of any couple. Sex, like any other necessary, precious, and volatile power that is commonly held, is everybody’s business . . .” (p. 119). Communities occur only when individuals voluntarily out of love bind themselves to each other, curtailing their own freedom. In the past, sexual intimacy between a man and a woman was understood as a powerful way for two people to bind themselves to stay together and build a family. Sex, Berry insists, is the ultimate “nurturing discipline.” It is a “relational glue” that creates the deep oneness and therefore stability in the relationship that not only is necessary for children to flourish but is crucial for local communities to thrive. The most obvious social cost to sex outside marriage is the enormous spread of disease and the burden of children without sufficient parental support. The less obvious but much greater cost is the exploding number of developmental and psychological problems among children who do not live in stable family environments for most of their lives. Most subtle of all is the sociological fact that what you do in private shapes your character, and that affects how you relate to others in society. When people use sex for individual recreation and fulfillment, it weakens the entire body politic’s ability to live for others. You learn to commodify people and think of them as a means to satisfy your own passing pleasure. It turns out that sex is not just your business; it’s everybody’s business.
”
”
Timothy J. Keller (The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God)
“
There’s a universal
understanding between
men of the silent sorrow
a man endures when
he loses a woman he
loves
”
”
Phil Volatile (Crushed Black Velvet)
“
How long do you intend for us to wait? Obviously you’re not perfect, but--”
“‘Not perfect’ is having a bald spot or pockmarks. My problems are a bit more significant than that.”
Beatrix answered in an anxious tumble of words. “I come from a family of flawed people who marry other flawed people. Every one of us has taken a chance on love.”
‘I love you too much to risk your safety.”
“Love me even more, then,” she begged. “Enough to marry me no matter what the obstacles are.”
Christopher scowled. “Don’t you think it would be easier for me to take what I want, regardless of the consequences? I want to hold you every night. I want to make love to you so badly I can’t even breathe. But I won’t allow any harm to come to you, especially from my hands.”
“You wouldn’t hurt me. Your instincts wouldn’t let you.”
“My instincts are those of a madman.”
Beatrix wrapped her arms around her bent knees. “You’re willing to accept my problems,” she said dolefully, “but you won’t allow me to accept yours.” She buried her face in her arms. “You don’t trust me.”
“You know that’s not the issue. I don’t trust myself.”
In her volatile state, it was difficult not to cry. The situation was so vastly unfair. Maddening.
“Beatrix.” Christopher knelt beside her, drawing her against him. She stiffened. “Let me hold you,” he said near her ear.
“If we don’t marry, when will I see you?” she asked miserably. “On chaperoned visits? Carriage drives? Stolen moments?”
Christopher smoothed her hair and stared into her swimming eyes. “It’s more than we’ve had until now.”
“It’s not enough.” Beatrix wrapped her arms around him. “I’m not afraid of you.” Gripping the back of his shirt, she gave it a little shake for emphasis. “I want you, and you say you want me, and the only thing standing in our way is you. Don’t tell me that you survived all those battles, and suffered through so much, merely to come home for this--”
He laid his fingers against her mouth. “Quiet. Let me think.”
“What is there to--”
“Beatrix,” he warned.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Love in the Afternoon (The Hathaways, #5))
“
The career of libido, as Freud mapped it out, did more than explain the origins of neuroses, of perversions, and of normal erotic gratification. It also explained ways of feeling and modes of acting that had hitherto seemed quite remote from sexuality: the child's rage at its newborn sibling, the adolescent's volatile friendships, the spinster's unappeasable fear of sexual assault, the pacifist's bellicose love of peace, the fanatic's foaming proselytizing, the fat man's uncontrollable overeating. Beyond that, it could illuminate inquiries and activities, like folklore and history, art and politics, presumably innocent of erotic urges. Psychoanalysis first made it possible to think systematically about so comprehensive, complex and elusive a world of experience as bourgeois love, about the paths, and obstructions, to the confluence of its two currents.
”
”
Peter Gay (The Bourgeois Experience: Victoria to Freud, Volume 2: The Tender Passion)