Impulse Quotes - Page 2

• One impulse from a vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can.

  William Wordsworth

  Nature, Educational, Men

  1798 'The Tables Turned', stanzas 6-8.

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• Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Life, Strong, Freedom

  Speech to 140th Indiana regiment, 17 Mar. 1865

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• Where the good begins.- Where the poor power of the eye can no longer see the evil impulse as such because it has become too subtle, man posits the realm of goodness; and the feeling that we have now entered the realm of goodness excites all those impulses which had been threatened and limited by the evil impulses, like the feeling of security, of comfort, of benevolence. Hence, the duller the eye, the more extensive the good. Hence the eternal cheerfulness of the common people and of children. Hence the gloominess and grief - akin to a bad conscience - of the great thinkers.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Children, Grief, Eye

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2010). “The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs”, p.115, Vintage

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• Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.

  Henry Van Dyke

  Thanksgiving, Gratitude, Kindness

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• Act on your impulse, swallow the bottle, cut a little deeper, put the gun to your chest.

  Ellen Hopkins

  Cutting, Gun, Bottles

  Ellen Hopkins (2008). “Impulse”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

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• Impulse is, after all, the best linguist; its logic, if not conformable to Aristotle, cannot fail to be most convincing.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Logic, Failing, All The Best

  Henry David Thoreau (2017). “Early Spring in Massachusetts: From the Journal of Henry David Thoreau”, p.51, Library of Alexandria

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• What persons are by starts they are by nature.

  Laurence Sterne

  Persons

  Laurence Sterne (1790). “The Works of Laurence Sterne: Complete in Eight Volumes”, p.150

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• A warm blundering man does more for the world than a frigid wise man.

  Lord David Cecil

  Wise, Men, Doe

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• "One impulse from a vernal wood

  William Wordsworth

  Nature, Tree, Woods

  1798 'The Tables Turned', stanzas 6-8.

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• Without the definiteness of sculpture and painting, music is, for that very reason, far more suggestive. Like Milton's Eve, an outline, an impulse, is furnished, and the imagination does the rest.

  Henry Theodore Tuckerman

  Music, Imagination, Doe

  Henry Theodore Tuckerman (1852). “The Optimist: A Series of Essays”, p.61

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• When we think carefully, we see that the brief elation we experience when appeasing sensual impulses may not be very different from what the drug addict feels when indulging his or her habit. Temporary relief is soon followed by a craving for more. And in just the same way that taking drugs in the end only causes trouble, so, too, does much of what we undertake to fulfill our immediate sensory desires.

  Dalai Lama

  Thinking, Drug, Sensual

  The Dalai Lama, Alexander Norman (2010). “Ancient Wisdom, Modern World: Ethics for the New Millennium”, p.36, Hachette UK

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• Free will is not the liberty to do whatever one likes, but the power of doing whatever one sees ought to be done, even in the very face of otherwise overwhelming impulse. There lies freedom, indeed.

  George MacDonald

  Lying, Liberty, Likes

  George Macdonald (1870). “The Miracles of Our Lord”, p.56

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• We are vulnerable if we can be taken by a wave of emotion, invaded by an invidious impulse, roughed up by resentment, or engulfed by a surge of selfishness.

  Neal A. Maxwell

  Selfish, Taken, Resentment

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• The most dangerous of our impulses reign in ourselves against ourselves. To dissolve them is a creative act.

  Hugo von Hofmannsthal

  Creative, Reign, Dangerous

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• I am certainly convinced that it is one of the greatest impulses of mankind to arrive at something higher than a natural state.

  James A. Baldwin

  Destiny, Natural, States

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• Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it - whole-heartedly - and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.

  Arthur Quiller-Couch

  Writing, Pieces, Crafts

  On the Art of Writing "On Style" (1916)

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• This world owes all its forward impulses to people ill at ease.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  People, Progress, Ease

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• ALL IMPULSES OF THOUGHT HAVE A TENDENCY TO CLOTHE THEMSELVES IN THEIR PHYSICAL EQUIVALENT.

  Napoleon Hill

  Inspirational, Thinking, Deep Thought

  Napoleon Hill (2015). “Think and grow rich: Brazilian edition”, p.48, CDG Edições e Publicações LTDA

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• Our human impulse is to control everything, but fiction seems to me to be about allowing an element of mystery into the text.

  Lauren Groff

  Mystery

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• A first impulse was never a crime.

  Pierre Corneille

  Inspirational, Greatest Love, Firsts

  'Horace' (1640) act 5, sc. 3.

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• The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it

  Joan Didion

  Writing, Share, Inexplicable

  Joan Didion (2013). “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”, p.98, Zola Books

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• The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Following, Pursue, Hard

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• The impulse for personal adornment is hard to stamp out.

  Virginia Postrel

  Stamps, Hard, Adornment

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• The impulse of love that leads us to the doorway of a friend is the voice of God within, and we need not be afraid to follow it.

  Agnes Sanford

  Voice, Needs, Doorways

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• The comic impulse is sometimes a reaction to sadness. You feel like you can make one choice or the other.

  Harold Ramis

  Sadness, Choices, Sometimes

  Source: www.ericspitznagel.com

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