Reluctance Quotes - Page 5

• A sturdy, hardened sinner shall advance to the utmost pitch of impiety, with less reluctance than he took the first step while his conscience was yet vigilant and tender.

  Francis Atterbury

  Firsts, Steps, Sin

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• The orator, who may be silent without danger, may praise without difficulty and without reluctance; and posterity will confess that the character of Theodosius might furnish the subject of a sincere and ample panegyric. The wisdom of his laws and the success of his arms rendered his administration respectable in the eyes both of his subjects and of his enemies. He loved and practised the virtues of domestic life, which seldom hold their residence in the palaces of kings.

  Edward Gibbon

  Kings, Eye, Character

  Edward Gibbon (2000). “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume II: A.D. 395 to A.D. 1185 (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.47, Modern Library

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• The term anarchism has become associated with two phenomena with which real anarchist don't want to associate themselves with. One is violence, and the other is disorder or chaos. The popular conception of anarchism is on the one hand bomb-throwing and terrorism, and on the other hand no rules, no regulations, no discipline, everybody does what they want, confusion, etc. That is why there is a reluctance to use the term anarchism.

  Howard Zinn

  Real, Hands, Two

  "Rebels Against Tyranny". Interview with Ziga Vodovnik, www.counterpunch.org. May 12, 2008.

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• Monkey Beach is a moody, powerful novel full of memorable characters. Reading it was like entering a pool of emerald water to discover a haunted world shivering with loss and love, regret and sorrow, where the spirit world is as real as the human. I was sucked into it with the very first sentence and when I left, it was with a feeling of immense reluctance.

  Anita Rau Badami

  Beach, Powerful, Regret

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• I should probably confess that I get bored easily, which explains my reluctance to work with formula, tropes, whatever.

  Kit Reed

  Bored, Should, Tropes

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• The Secretary, working in the Dismal Swamp betimes next morning, was informed that a youth waited in the hall who gave the name of Sloppy. The footman who communicated this intelligence made a decent pause before uttering the name, to express that it was forced on his reluctance by the youth in question, and that if the youth had had the good sense and good taste to inherit some other name it would have spared the feelings of him the bearer.

  Charles Dickens

  Funny, Morning, Humorous

  Charles Dickens (1865). “Our Mutual Friend”, p.246

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• I am apt to think, if we knew what it was to be an angel for one hour, we should return to this world, though it were to sit on the brightest throne in it, with vastly more loathing and reluctance than we would now descend into a loathsome dungeon or sepulchre.

  George Berkeley

  Angel, Thinking, Dungeons

  George Berkeley, Joseph Stock (1820). “The Works of George Berkeley”, p.66

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• Smiling half-reluctance seems to promise more than the frankest gesture of desire.

  Mason Cooley

  Smile, Promise, Desire

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• My reluctance to enter any relationship with men has been affected by the fact that many Aboriginal men are very wounded and are not able to be in a healthy relationship due to historical damage and with non-Native men because I no longer want to educate them about Indigenous Issues. I'm tired of being the educator or nurse.

  Marilyn Dumont

  Tired, Men, Issues

  Interview with Margery Fee, canlit.ca. September 1, 2014.

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• Women come into marriage with great inflated expectations for what they want this relationship to be, and men don't give it that much thought. Men come into it with reluctance about being capsized or trapped or whatever their fear is. When you check in later, women are disappointed because their expectations have not come to pass, and men are pleasantly surprised.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Men, Expectations, Giving

  Source: www.goodreads.com

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• In almost every thriller, a point is reached when someone, usually calling from a phone booth, telephones with a vital piece of information, which he cannot divulge by phone. By the time the hero arrives at the place where they had arranged to meet, the caller is dead, or too near death to tell. There is never an explanation for the reluctance of the caller to impart his message in the first place.

  Renata Adler

  Hero, Phones, Calling

  Renata Adler (2013). “Speedboat”, p.100, New York Review of Books

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• The soul loves to meditate, for in contact with the Spirit lies its greatest joy. If, then you experience mental resistance during meditation, remember that reluctance to meditate comes from the ego; it doesn't belong to the soul.

  Paramahansa Yogananda

  Lying, Yoga, Meditation

  Paramahansa Yogananda (1990). “The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda”, Crystal Clarity Pubs

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