Compulsion Quotes - Page 5

• In most ages many countries have had part of their inhabitants in a state of slavery; yet it may be doubted whether slavery can ever be supposed the natural condition of man. It is impossible not to conceive that men in their original state were equal; and very difficult to imagine how one would be subjected to another but by violent compulsion. An individual may, indeed, forfeit his liberty by a crime; but he cannot by that crime forfeit the liberty of his children.

  Samuel Johnson

  Country, Children, Men

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Edmond Malone (1824). “The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished”, p.195

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Free Exercise Clause at the very least was designed to guarantee freedom of conscience by prohibiting any degree of compulsion in matters of belief. It was offended by a burden on one's religion. The Establishment Clause can be understood as designed in part to ensure that the advancement of religion comes only from the voluntary efforts of its proponents and not from support by the state. Religious groups are to prosper or perish on the intrinsic merit and attraction of their beliefs and practices.

  Harry A. Blackmun

  Religious, Exercise, Practice

  11 Copy quote

• If a quote of two individuals looks identical or almost similar to make it difficult to know as who said it first to be Mr. Right, then it is perhaps sensible to give credit for the same to one who travels in life light by choice and not compulsions than other who is too eager to board on a success flight.

  Anuj

  Two, Mr Right, Light

  4 Copy quote

• But that night as I drove back to Montreal, I at least discovered this: that there is no simple explanation for anything important any of us do, and that the human tragedy, or the human irony, consists in the necessity of living with the consequences of actions performed under the pressure of compulsions so obscure we do not and cannot understand them.

  Hugh MacLennan

  Simple, Night, Tragedy

  Hugh MacLennan (2009). “Watch that Ends the Night”, p.266, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Government means always coercion and compulsion and is by necessity the opposite of liberty.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Freedom, Mean, Government

  Ludwig Von Mises (1990). “Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• They who cannot be induced to fear for love will never be enforced to love for fear. Love opens the heart, fear shuts it; that encourages, this compels; and victory meets encouragement, but flees compulsion.

  Francis Quarles

  Encouragement, Fear, Heart

  Francis Quarles (1844). “Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles”, p.24

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I write when something sticks in my craw. Writing is a compulsion — or an itch.

  Hisaye Yamamoto

  Writing, Sticks

  16 Copy quote

• Government has ceased to mean upholding and reinforcing the traditional rights and morals of the governed; it now means compulsion in the service of social engineering.

  Joseph Sobran

  Mean, Rights, Government

  7 Copy quote

• We humans have had from time unknown the compulsion to name things and thus to be able to deal with them. The name we give to something shapes our attitude toward it. And in ancient thought the name itself has power, so that to know someone's name is to have a certain power over him. And in some societies, as you know, there was a public name and a real or secret name, which would not be revealed to others.

  Katherine Paterson

  Attitude, Real, Names

  Katherine Paterson (1981). “Gates of excellence: on reading and writing books for children”, Dutton Juvenile

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The quest for a war-free world has a basic purpose: survival. But if in the process we learn how to achieve it by love rather than by fear, by kindness rather than by compulsion; if in the process we learn to combine the essential with the enjoyable, the expedient with the benevolent, the practical with the beautiful, this will be an extra incentive to embark on this great task.

  Joseph Rotblat

  Beautiful, Kindness, War

  Joseph Rotblat, Ikeda Daisaku (2006). “A Quest for Global Peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on War, Ethics and the Nuclear Threat”, p.121, I.B.Tauris

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is a part of the nature of man to resist compulsion.

  Tacitus

  Men, Nature Of Man

  20 Copy quote

• Men are always wicked at bottom unless they are made good by some compulsion.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Men, Wicked, Made

  20 Copy quote

• A rational mind does not work under compulsion; it does not subordinate its grasp of reality to anyone's orders, directives, or controls; it does not sacrifice its knowledge, its view of the truth, to anyone's opinions, threats, wishes, plans.

  Ayn Rand

  Truth, Knowledge, Sacrifice

  "Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal".

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• While it is undeniable that many have been driven to immorality and crime by the need to survive, it is equally evident that the possession of a significant surplus of material goods has never been a guarantee against covetousness, rapacity and the infinite variety of vice and pain which spring from such passions. Indeed, it could be argued that the unrelenting compulsion of those who already have much to acquire even more has generated greater injustice, immorality and wretchedness than the cumulative effect of the struggles of the severely underprivileged to better their lot.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Pain, Spring, Struggle

  6 Copy quote

• Freedom means the power to act by soul guidance, not by the compulsions of desires and habits. Obeying the ego leads to bondage; obeying the soul brings liberation.

  Paramahansa Yogananda

  Mean, Ego, Soul

  38 Copy quote

• Cheerfulness consists in not regarding things as our own, but as entrusted to us by God for the benefit of our fellow-servants. It consists in scattering them abroad generously with joy and magnanimity, not reluctantly or under compulsion.

  Symeon the New Theologian

  Christian, Joy, Benefits

  Saint Symeon (the New Theologian) (1980). “Symeon New Theologian”, p.156, Paulist Press

  60 Copy quote

  Show source

• I turn my eyes to the schools & universities of Europe And there behold the loom of Locke whose woof rages dire, Washed by the water-wheels of Newton. Black the cloth In heavy wreaths folds over every nation; cruel works Of many wheels I view, wheel without wheel, with cogs tyrannic Moving by compulsion each other: not as those in Eden, which Wheel within wheel in freedom revolve, in harmony & peace.

  William Blake

  Education, Moving, School

  William Blake, W. H. Stevenson (2007). “Blake: The Complete Poems”, p.688, Pearson Education

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm uncomfortable when I'm comfortable. I have to start something new-in the agency or in my personal life-every two years or so. Taking risks gives me energy. I can't help it, it's my personality. I'd like to think it's not really a compulsion toward high risks, but the spirit of an entrepreneur.

  Jay Chiat

  Thinking, Agency, Years

  9 Copy quote

• I started writing 'Brick Lane' when my children were two years and five months old. We were on holiday in the north of England when I was overtaken by a compulsion to start writing.

  Monica Ali

  Children, Writing, Holiday

  4 Copy quote

• Do not make this practice a source of pressure, compulsion, anxiety or pride. It is none of these. Zazen is simply a way to find your true home.

  Brenda Shoshanna

  Home, Pride, Practice

  7 Copy quote

• A profound dislike for merely absorbing knowledge and a compulsion to learn by doing are among the most reliable signs of genius.

  Sylvia Nasar

  Profound, Genius, Absorbing

  7 Copy quote

• The drive to resist compulsion is more important in wild animals than sex, food, or water... The drive for competence or to resist compulsion is a drive to avoid helplessness.

  Martin Seligman

  Sex, Animal, Water

  8 Copy quote

• Once efficiency is universally accepted as a rule, it becomes an inner compulsion and weighs like a sense of sin, simply because no one can ever be efficient enough, just as no one can ever be virtuous enough.

  Clement Greenberg

  Sin, Enough, Accepted

  Clement Greenberg (1971). “Art and Culture: Critical Essays”, p.31, Beacon Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are clear differences between child and adult artistic activity. While the child may be aware that he is doing things differently from others, he does not fully appreciate the rules and conventions of symbolic realms; his adventurousness holds little significance. In contrast, the adult artist is fully cognizant of the norms embraced by others; his willingness, his compulsion, to reject convention is purchased, at the very least, with full knowledge of what he is doing and often at considerable psychic cost to himself.

  Howard Gardner

  Children, Artist, Psychics

  Howard Gardner (1982). “Art, mind, and brain: a cognitive approach to creativity”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• To wake in the night: be wide awake in an instant, with all your faculties on edge: to wake, and be under compulsion to set in, night for night, at the same point, knowing from grim experience, that the demons awaiting you have each to be grappled with in turn, no single one of them left unthrown, before you can win through to the peace that is utter exhaustion.

  Henry Handel Richardson

  Sleep, Winning, Night

  Henry Handel Richardson (pseud.) (1930). “The fortunes of Richard Mahony: comprising Australia Felix, The way home, Ultima Thule”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source