Willfulness Quotes

• If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves. The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Br?nnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.

  W. H. Auden

  Real, Feelings, Quality

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• Willfulness must give way to willingness and surrender. Mastery must yield to mystery.

  Gerald May

  Yield, Giving, Mastery

  Gerald G. May (2009). “Will and Spirit”, p.8, Harper Collins

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• When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.

  Rumi

  Spiritual, Integrity, Moving

  Rumi (2014). “'Another city'. a selectionf of poems from the Persian”, p.106, Lulu.com

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• To know the will of God is the greatest knowledge! To do the will of God is the greatest achievement.

  George W Truett

  God, Knowledge, Greatness

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• Winning is not everything, but wanting to win is.

  Vince Lombardi

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  Quoted in Esquire, Nov. 1962

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• Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening. I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is truly about-quite apart from what I would like it to be about-or my life will never represent anything real in the world, no matter how earnest my intentions…..Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am. I must listen for the truths and values at the heart of my own identity, not the standards by which I must live-but the standards by which I cannot help but live if I am living my own life.

  Parker J. Palmer

  Real, Heart, Who I Am

  Parker J. Palmer (2015). “Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation”, p.13, John Wiley & Sons

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• Conceit and arrogance are acquired states of mind. Conquer acquired states of mind, and basic sanity can unfold. Passion and willfulness are part of false consciousness; erase false consciousness, and true consciousness will appear.

  Zicheng Hong

  Passion, Mind, Taoism

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• It was not in my nature to be an assertive person. I was used to looking to others for guidance, for influence, sometimes for the most basic cues of life. And yet writing stories is one of the most assertive things a person can do. Fiction is an act of willfulness, a deliberate effort to reconceive, to rearrange, to reconstitute nothing short of reality itself. Even among the most reluctant and doubtful of writers, this willfulness must emerge. Being a writer means taking the leap from listening to saying, "Listen to me."

  Jhumpa Lahiri

  Writing, Mean, Reality

  "Trading Stories". www.newyorker.com. June 13 & 20, 2011.

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• Being a writer means taking the leap from listening to saying 'Listen to me'.

  Jhumpa Lahiri

  Inspiration, Mean, Writing

  "Trading Stories" by Jhumpa Lahiri, www.newyorker.com. June 13&20, 2011.

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• Large or small, [the garden] should be orderly and rich. It should be well fenced from the outside world. It should by no means imitate either the willfulness or the wildness of nature, but should look like a thing never to be seen except near the house. It should, in fact, look like part of the house.

  William Morris

  Mean, Garden, House

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• If you want to nourish a bird, you should let it live any way it chooses. Creatures differ because they have different likes and dislikes. Therefore the sages never require the same ability from all creatures. . . concepts of right should be founded on what is suitable. The true saint leaves wisdom to the ants, takes a cue from the fishes, and leaves willfulness to the sheep.

  Zhuangzi

  Sheep, Likes And Dislikes, Bird

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• I think I've inherited a kind ofwillfulness, a kind of quiet willfulness that I'll just hang in there with something until it happens.

  Tony Goldwyn

  Thinking, Kind, Quiet

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• Writing is one of the most assertive things a person can do.

  Jhumpa Lahiri

  Writing, Assertive, Persons

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• No amount of human willfulness can overcome God's determined love.

  Max Anders

  Overcoming, Determined, Humans

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• If I prove extravagant, I shall be more so from ignorance than willfulness. I am not wholly insensible to the pleasures of the world, therefore shall not be governed entirely by necessity; but I flatter myself, at least, in being able to restrain their gratification within due bonds.

  Washington Allston

  Ignorance, Able, World

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