Longing Quotes - Page 31

• He who leaves school, knowing little, but with a longing for knowledge, will go farther than one who quits, knowing many things, but not caring to learn more.

  John Lancaster Spalding

  School, Caring, Knowing

  John Lancaster Spalding (1901). “Aphorisms and Reflections: Conduct, Culture and Religion”

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• Lust is a strong tower of mischief, and hath in it many defenders, as neediness, anger, paleness, discord, love, and longing.

  Diogenes

  Strong, Lust, Towers

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• The character structure of modern man, who reproduces a six-thousand-year-old patriarchal authoritarian culture is typified by characterological armoring against his inner nature and against the social misery which surrounds him. This characterolgical armoring of the character is the basis of isolation, indigence, craving for authority, fear of responsibility, mystic longing, sexual misery, and neurotically impotent rebelliousness.

  Wilhelm Reich

  Character, Responsibility, Men

  "The Function of the Orgasm". Book by Wilhelm Reich, 1927.

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• I'm a man with a mission in two or three editions And I'm giving you a longing look Everyday, everyday, everyday I write the book.

  Elvis Costello

  Book, Writing, Men

  Song: Every Day I Write The Book, 1983

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• In my youth and comparative inexperience I had always regarded the yearning and pangs of love as the worst torture that could afflict the human heart. At this moment, however, I began to realize that there was another and perhaps grimmer torture than that of longing and desiring: that of being loved against one's will and of being unable to defend oneself against the urgency of another's passion; of seeing another human being seared by the flame of her desire and of having to look impotently, lacking the power, the capacity, the strength to pluck her from the flames.

  Stefan Zweig

  Love, Passion, Heart

  "Beware of Pity". Book by Stefan Zweig, 1939.

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• Two deep human desires were at war ... the longing for stability, for form, for permanence, which in its essence is the desire for death, and the opposing hunger for movement, change, instability and risk, which are life. Men came from the east and built these American towns because they wished to go no farther, and the towns they built were shaped by the urge to go onward.

  Rose Wilder Lane

  War, Men, Essence

  Rose Wilder Lane (1985). “Old Home Town”, p.5, U of Nebraska Press

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• Ordinary men, to whom all things are possible, don't often, if ever, think of Heaven. It is a name, and nothing more, and they are content to wait and let things be, but to those who are doomed to be shut out for ever you cannot think what it means, you cannot guess or measure the terrible endless longing to see the gates opened, and to be able to join the white figures within.

  Bram Stoker

  Mean, Men, Thinking

  Bram Stoker (2006). “Dracula's Guest: & Other Stories”, p.122, Wordsworth Editions

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• There in the windy flood of morning Longing lifted its weight from me, Lost as a sob in the midst of cheering, Swept as a sea-bird out to sea.

  Sara Teasdale

  Morning, Cheer, Sea

  Sara Teasdale (1915). “Rivers to the Sea”

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• For any exam in history, here is the answer: all human history is the struggle between systems that attempt to shackle the human personality in the name of some intangible good on the one hand and systems that enable and expand the scope of human personality in the pursuit of extremely tangible aims. The American system is the most successful in the world because it harmonizes best with the aims and longings of human personality while allowing the best protection to other personalities.

  Ben Stein

  Struggle, Successful, Hands

  Ben Stein (2010). “The Real Stars: In Today's America, Who Are the True Heroes?”, p.33, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Whatsoever misfortunes there are Here in this world or in the next, They all have their root in Ignorance And in the accumulation of Longing and Desire.

  Gautama Buddha

  Ignorance, Roots, Desire

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• It goes without saying that any persons may attempt to unite kindred spirits, but, whatever their hopes and longings, none have the right to impose their vision of unity upon the rest.

  Robert Nozick

  Unity, Vision, May

  Robert Nozick (2013). “Anarchy, State, and Utopia”, p.325, Basic Books

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• Through words we come to know the other person--and to be known. This knowing is at the heart of our deepest longings for intimacy and connection with others. How relationships unfold with the most important people in our lives depends on courage and clarity in finding voice.

  Harriet Lerner

  Heart, Voice, Knowing

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• People marry with a deep longing that their partner will tend to their wounds, not throw salt in them. Honor your partner's vulnerability.

  Harriet Lerner

  People, Honor, Salt

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• The soul contains few secrets and longings which cannot be sensibly discussed, analyzed, and polled. Solitude, the very condition which sustained the individual against and beyond his society, has become technically impossible. Logical and linguistic analysis demonstrate that the old metaphysical problems are illusory problems; the quest for the "meaning" of things can be reformulated as the quest for the meaning of words, and the established universe of discourse and behavior can provide perfectly adequate criteria for the answer.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Soul, Solitude, Secret

  Herbert Marcuse (2012). “One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society”, p.71, Beacon Press

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• The thing that attracts people to "The Sopranos" is the family element. It shows that America still has a longing for that traditional upbringing.

  Christine O'Donnell

  America, People, Elements

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• The cosmos exploded, actualizing its potentiality of space and time. The centers of power, like fragments of a bursting bomb, were hurled apart. But each one retained in itself, as a memory and a longing, the single point of the whole; and each mirrored in itself aspects of all the others throughout all the cosmical space and time.

  Olaf Stapledon

  Memories, Space, Cosmos

  Olaf Stapledon (1931). “Last and First Men, & Star Maker: Two Science-fiction Novels”, Courier Corporation

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• Frank Berliners spiritual memoir is beautifully crafted and written. It is a tale about love, and the great longing that springs from there—to learn, to grow, to be real, and to forge a genuine connection with oneself and others, with life, and with death. I highly recommend it.

  John Welwood

  Spiritual, Spring, Real

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• The bitter winds in February were sometimes called the First East Winds, but the longing for spring somehow made them seem more piercing.

  Eiji Yoshikawa

  Spring, Wind, East

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• At every stage, addiction is driven by one of the most powerful, mysterious, and vital forces of human existence. What drives addiction is longing--a longing not just of brain, belly, or loins but finally of the heart.

  Cornelius Plantinga

  Powerful, Heart, Addiction

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• I do not play the instrument In longing but in quest Not to be undertaken Not to be lost In a forest of bliss.

  Katy Lederer

  Play, Quests, Forests

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• It is our genetic nature as a species to believe as young children that our parents and elders are right. We watch them to see what's what. Later on we can judge for ourselves and rebel if need be, but when we're just months old, or a year or two, and a parent looks at us with impatience, or disgust, or disdain, or just leaves us there to cry and doesn't answer us even though we're longing to be embraced and nurtured, we assume that something must be wrong with us. Unfortunately, at that age it's impossible to think there might be something wrong with them.

  Jean Liedloff

  Children, Self Esteem, Believe

  "An Interview with Jean Liedloff" by Chris Mercogliano, www.continuum-concept.org.

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• Wonder is defined by Thomas [Aquinas] in the Summa Theologiae [I-II, Q. 32, a. 8], as the desiderium sciendi, the desire for knowledge, active longing to know.

  Josef Pieper

  Desire, Wonder, Active

  "Leisure, the Basis of Culture" by Josef Pieper, translated by Gerald Malsbary, South Bend, Indiana: St. Augustine's Press, (pp. 106-107), 1998.

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• I have known exile and a wild passion Of longing changing to a cold ache. King, beggar and fool , I have been all by turns, Knowing the body's sweetness, the mind 's treason ; Taliesin still, I show you a new world , risen, Stubborn with beauty , out of the heart 's need .

  R. S. Thomas

  Kings, Passion, Heart

  "Song at the Year's Turning : Poems, 1942-1954" by R. S. Thomas". Book by R. S. Thomas, 1955.

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• Prayer simply means a longing of the heart, it is the wish felt, - it may be expressed, or not expressed. It may take the form of human language or it may never be uttered at all; still it is a prayer, if God only hears it in the secret recess of the heart.

  Keshub Chandra Sen

  Prayer, Heart, Mean

  Sermon at Hackney Unitarian Church, London, April 24, 1870.

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• There is a longing among all people and creatures to have a sense of purpose and worth. To satisfy that common longing in all of us we must respect each other.

  Chief Dan George

  Respect, People, Purpose

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