Inclination Quotes - Page 5

• In reality, moral rules are directions for running the human machine. Every moral rule is there to prevent a breakdown, or a strain, or a friction, in the running of that machine. That is why these rules at first seem to be constantly interfering with our natural inclinations.

  C. S. Lewis

  Running, Reality, Machines

  C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.11, Simon and Schuster

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• There are souls that are incurable and lost to the rest of society. Deprive them of one means of folly, they will invent ten thousand others. They will create subtler, wilder methods, methods that are absolutely DESPERATE. Nature herself is fundamentally antisocial, it is only by a usurpation of powers that the organized body of society opposes the natural inclination of humanity.

  Antonin Artaud

  Mean, Soul, Humanity

  Antonin Artaud (1988). “Antonin Artaud, Selected Writings”, p.99, Univ of California Press

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• It is indolence... Indolence and love of ease; a want of all laudable ambition, of taste for good company, or of inclination to take the trouble of being agreeable, which make men clergymen. A clergyman has nothing to do but be slovenly and selfish; read the newspaper, watch the weather, and quarrel with his wife. His curate does all the work and the business of his own life is to dine.

  Jane Austen

  Life, Selfish, Ambition

  Jane Austen (2006). “8 Books in 1: Jane Austen's Complete Novels. Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Lady Susan, and Love an”, p.307, Shoes & Ships & Sealing Wax

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• The ability and inclination to use physical strength is no indication of bravery or tenacity to life. The greatest cowards are often the greatest bullies. Nothing is cheaper and more common than physical bravery.

  Clarence Darrow

  Courage, Hippie, Bravery

  Clarence Darrow, S. T. Joshi (2005). “Closing Arguments: Clarence Darrow on Religion, Law, and Society”, p.89, Ohio University Press

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• Making matters worse is people's natural inclination to be easy on themselves, judging themselves according to their good intentions-while holding others to a higher standard and judging them by their worst actions.

  John C. Maxwell

  Judging, People, Matter

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• No one person has to do it all but if each one of us follow our heart and our own inclinations we will find the small things that we can do to create a sustainable future and a healthy environment.

  John Denver

  Future, Heart, Healthy

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• Always, Sir, set a high value on spontaneous kindness. he whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord, will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.

  Samuel Johnson

  Friendship, Pain, Kindness

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 4, p. 115 (May 1781)

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• To stimulate creativity one must develop childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition.

  Albert Einstein

  Creativity, Humor, Play

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• Dreams are faithful interpreters of our inclinations; but there is art required to sort and understand them.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Dream, Art, Faithful

  Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Essays of Montaigne”, p.1257, Xist Publishing

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• The knowledge of courtesy and good manners is a very necessary study. It is like grace and beauty, that which begets liking and an inclination to love one another at the first sight.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Sight, Grace, Good Man

  Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Montaigne's Essays: Top Essays”, p.84, 谷月社

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• It is not from reason and prudence that people marry, but from inclination.

  Samuel Johnson

  Marriage, Wedding, People

  Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1825). “The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals”, p.163

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• I can never think of promoting my convenience at the expense of a friend's interest and inclination.

  George Washington

  Friendship, Thinking, Convenience

  George Washington (1855). “Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious”, p.310

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• Attempting to satisfy the passions that rage inside us and the longings that motivate us, we invent spirituality, lean on political solutions, create new villains, turn our backs on Jesus, and blame a thousand tyrannies- but we never come to terms with the source of the problem deep within the heart and inclination of every human being.

  Ravi Zacharias

  Jesus, Passion, Heart

  Ravi Zacharias (2010). “Has Christianity Failed You?”, p.41, Zondervan

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• I have an intellectual inclination for democratic institutions, but I am instinctively an aristocrat, which means that I despise and fear the masses. I passionately love liberty, legality, the respect for rights, but not democracy....liberty is my foremost passion. That is the truth.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Mean, Passion, Rights

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• I shall not do more than I can, and I shall do all I can to save the government, which is my sworn duty as well as my personal inclination. I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Perseverance, Government, Duty

  Ulysses S. Grant, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Stephen Crane, Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln (2012). “The Modern Library Civil War Bookshelf 5-Book Bundle: Personal Memoirs, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Red Badge of Courage, Jefferson Davis: The Essential Writings, The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln”, p.2761, Modern Library

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• In my own view, some advice about what should be known, about what technical education should be acquired, about the intense motivation needed to succeed, and about the carelessness and inclination toward bias that must be avoided is far more useful than all the rules and warnings of theoretical logic.

  Santiago Ramon y Cajal

  Motivation, Knowledge, Science

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• I will simply express my strong belief, that that point of self-education which consists in teaching the mind to resist its desires and inclinations, until they are proved to be right, is the most important of all, not only in things of natural philosophy, but in every department of dally life.

  Michael Faraday

  Strong, Philosophy, Teaching

  Michael Faraday (1859). “Experimental researches in Chemistry and Physics ... Reprinted from the Philosophical Transactions of 1821-1857; the Journal of the Royal Institution ... and other publications”, p.477

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• Our novice runs the risk of failure without additional traits: a strong inclination toward originality, a taste for research, and a desire to experience the incomparable gratification associated with the act of discovery itself.

  Santiago Ramon y Cajal

  Running, Strong, Science

  Santiago Ramón y Cajal (2004). “Advice for a Young Investigator”, p.48, MIT Press

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• I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."

  Abraham Lincoln

  Believe, Purpose, Slavery

  Abraham Lincoln (2008). “The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln”, p.250, Wildside Press LLC

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• The faith I have when I am in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament is so strong that I find it impossible to express what I feel... When the time comes to leave I must force myself to overcome the inclination to prolong my stay with Jesus.

  Anthony Mary Claret

  Jesus, Strong, Blessed

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• We must have a real living determination to reach holiness. ''I will be a saint'' means I will despoil myself of all that is not God; I will strip my heart of all created things; I will live in poverty and detachment; I will renounce my will, my inclinations, my whims and fancies, and make make myself a willing slave to the will of God.

  Mother Teresa

  God, Mother, Determination

  Mother Teresa (2001). “Mother Teresa: Essential Writings”

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• Beneficence is a duty. He who frequently practices it, and sees his benevolent intentions realized, at length comes really to love him to whom he has done good. When, therefore, it is said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," it is not meant, thou shalt love him first and do him good in consequence of that love, but, thou shalt do good to thy neighbor; and this thy beneficence will engender in thee that love to mankind which is the fulness and consummation of the inclination to do good.

  Immanuel Kant

  Practice, Done, Charity

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• I do not see why the axiom of Prudence should not be questioned, when it conflicts with present inclination, on a ground similar to that on which Egoists refuse to admit the axiom of Rational Benevolence. If the Utilitarian has to answer the question, 'Why should I sacrifice my own happiness for the greater happiness of another?' it must surely be admissible to ask the Egoist 'Why should I sacrifice a present pleasure for a greater one in the future? Why should I concern myself about my own future feelings any more than about the feelings of other persons?'

  Henry Sidgwick

  Sacrifice, Psychology, Feelings

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• [S]uppose the mind of [a] friend of humanity were clouded over with his own grief, extinguishing all sympathetic participation in the fate of others; he still has the resources to be beneficent to those suffering distress, but the distress of others does not touch him because he is sufficiently busy with his own; and now, where no inclination any longer stimulates him to it, he tears himself out of his deadly insensibility and does the action without any inclination, solely from duty.

  Immanuel Kant

  Grief, Fate, Psychology

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• Though inclination be as sharp as will,
  My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
  And, like a man to double business bound,
  I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
  And both neglect.

  William Shakespeare

  Strong, Business, Memorable

  William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine (2004). “Hamlet”, p.165, Simon and Schuster

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