Compelled Quotes

• It would be curious to know what leads a man to become a stationer rather than a baker, when he is no longer compelled, as among the Egyptians, to succeed to his father's craft.

  Honore de Balzac

  Father, Men, Bakers

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  I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.

  Clara Barton

  Military, War, Nursing

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• Whatever truth we feel compelled to withhold, no matter how unthinkable it is to imagine ourselves telling it, not to is a way of spiritually holding our breath. You can only do it for so long.

  Mark Nepo

  Long, Matter, Way

  Mark Nepo (2000). “The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have”, p.410, Conari Press

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• To some men peace merely means the liberty to exploit other people without fear of retaliation or interference. To others peace means the freedom to rob others without interruption. To still others it means the leisure to devour the goods of the earth without being compelled to interrupt their pleasures to feed those whom their greed is starving. And to practically everybody peace simply means the absence of any physical violence that might cast a shadow over lives devoted to the satisfaction of their animal appetites for comfort and pleasure.

  Thomas Merton

  Mean, Men, Animal

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.122, New Directions Publishing

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• We live not alone but chained to a creature of a different kingdom: our body.

  Marcel Proust

  Different, Body, Kingdoms

  Marcel Proust (2006). “Remembrance of Things Past”, p.1104, Wordsworth Editions

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• You can never fully put your finger on the reason why you're suddenly, inexplicably compelled to explore one life as opposed to another.

  Daniel Day-Lewis

  Life, Roles, Cinema

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• When I started doing these advocacy groups, it sort of propelled and compelled me to write songs, because otherwise I wasn't really sure what I was going to do, music-wise. I wasn't particularly motivated to write songs. But this level of humanity and spirit that I witnessed greatly impacted and so inspired me, so that I felt this sort of renewed vigor to write music. As far as how grounding it is, yeah, it's the ultimate amount of perspective.

  Thao Nguyen

  Wise, Song, Writing

  Source: therumpus.net

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• Only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Respect, Self Esteem, Self

  "The Insulted and the Injured". Book by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1861.

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• I tell aspiring writers that you have to find what you must write. When you find it, you will know, because the subject matter won’t let you go. It’s not enough to write simply because you think it would be neat to be published. You have to be compelled to write. If you’re not, nothing else that you do matters.

  Rick Riordan

  Writing, Thinking, Would Be

  "Advice For Writers". Q&A, rickriordan.com.

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• The fact that I loved Jesus was beginning to interfere with the plans I once had for my life and certainly with the plans others had for me. My heart had been apprehended by a great love, a love that compelled me to live differently.

  Katie Davis

  Jesus, Heart, Great Love

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• It may be a procession of faithful failures that enriches the soil of godly success. Faithful actions are not religious acts. They are not even necessary actions undertaken by people of faith. Faithful actions, whether they are marked by success or they end in failure, are actions that are compelled by goodness.

  Desmond Tutu

  Religious, Godly, People

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• Where am I? Who am I? How did I come to be here? What is this thing called the world? How did I come into the world? Why was I not consulted? And If I am compelled to take part in it, where is the director? I want to see him.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Philosophy, Umpires, Directors

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• Pythagoras asks that we not let a friend go lightly, for whatever reason. Instead, we should stay with a friend as long as we can, until we're compelled to abandon him completely against our will. It's a serious thing to toss away money, but to cast aside a person is even more serious. Nothing in human life is more rarely found, nothing more dearly possessed. No loss is more chilling or more dangerous than that of a friend.

  Thomas Moore

  Friendship, Loss, Long

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• Virtue and merit can become their opposites if they are exacted or compelled.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Opposites, Merit, Virtue

  Christopher Hitchens (2009). “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, p.139, Basic Books

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• Poverty is uncomfortable; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim.

  James A. Garfield

  Swimming, Men, Nine

  "Elements of Success". "President Garfield and education. Hiram college memorial". Book compiled by B. A. Hinsdale, p. 331, 1882.

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• For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face; her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened - then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret, like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Children, Regret, Sunshine

  F. Scott Fitzgerald (2013). “The Great Gatsby”, p.14, Atlântico Press

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• For a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Men, Lasts, Faces

  The Great Gatsby ch. 9 (1925)

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• We knew the pain of winter rushing up your skirt, and the ache of keeping your knees together in class, and how drab and infuriating it was to jump rope while the boys played baseball. We could never understand why the girls cared so much about being mature, or why they felt compelled to compliment each other.

  Jeffrey Eugenides

  Girl, Baseball, Pain

  Jeffrey Eugenides (1993). “The Virgin Suicides: A Novel”, p.40, Macmillan

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• I hate vulgar realism in literature. The man who would call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one.

  Oscar Wilde

  Hate, Men, Use

  Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Picture of Dorian Gray (Diversion Classics)”, p.212, Diversion Books

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• When a young person is moved by a passion and feels compelled to go on this sort of quest, I think you have to let him. You can't stop him. In our culture we don't have formal rights of passage like in some ancient cultures. Subjecting yourself to risk... may be something you have to go through to be a man or a woman.

  Jon Krakauer

  Passion, Men, Thinking

  FaceBook post by Jon Krakauer from Sep 30, 2011

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• We submit to the majority because we have to. But we are not compelled to call our attitude of subjection a posture of respect.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Attitude, Majority, Posture

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2692, Delphi Classics

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• I've always believed that if you are precise in your thoughts, it's not the lines you say that are important - it's what exists between the lines. What I'm compelled by most is that transparency of thought, what is left unspoken.

  Vera Farmiga

  Important, Lines, Transparency

  "Vera Farmiga: 'I demand a lot from myself'". Interview with Elizabeth Day, www.theguardian.com. March 26, 2011.

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• Meditation is to get insight, to get understanding and compassion, and when you have them, you are compelled to act.

  Nhat Hanh

  Compassion, Meditation, Understanding

  "Burma's Monks: Already a Success". content.time.com. October 12, 2007.

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• not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of . . . but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Independent, Common Sense, Principles

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1859). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence. Reports and opinions while secretary of state”, p.407

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• The compelled mother loves her child as the caged bird sings. The song does not justify the cage nor the love the enforcement.

  Germaine Greer

  Mother, Song, Children

  Germaine Greer (1990). “The Madwoman's Underclothes: Essays and Occasional Writings”, p.115, Atlantic Monthly Press

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