Propensity Quotes

• By labor and intent study (which I take to be my portion in this life), joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to after-times, as they should not willingly let it die.

  John Milton

  Life, Nature, Strong

  'The Reason of Church Government' (1642) bk. 2, introduction

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• Women's propensity to share confidences is universal. We confirm our reality by sharing.

  Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

  Reality, Share, Universal

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• The wind at Candlestick tonight is blowing with great propensity.

  Ron Fairly

  Wind, Tonight

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• I have this propensity to just come out and say things. That's how I am in real life.

  Miguel

  Real, Real Life

  "Miguel: the slow-burn success of a new R&B superstar". Interview with Tim Jonze, www.theguardian.com. February 9, 2013.

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• Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor. Which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony.

  Jane Austen

  Inspiring, Strong Women, Being Single

  1817 Letter to Fanny Knight,13 Mar.

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• A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.

  Carl Sagan

  Atheist, Science, Ideas

  "Contact". Book by Carl Sagan. Chapter 14, p. 244, 1985.

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• A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow real poverty.

  David Hume

  Real, Joy, Sorrow

  David Hume (1788). “Essays, moral, political, and literary.- v. 2. An inquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of religion”, p.152

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• The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.

  Fisher Ames

  Believe, Ignorant, Democracy

  Fisher Ames (1809). “Works of Fisher Ames, compiled by a number of his friends”, p.384

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• No evil propensity of the human heart is so powerful that it may not be subdued by discipline.

  Seneca the Elder

  Inspirational, Powerful, Philosophical

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• Women are degraded by the propensity to enjoy the present moment, and, at last, despise the freedom which they have not sufficient virtue to struggle to attain.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Women, Struggle, Aggravation

  Mary Wollstonecraft, Philip Barnard, Stephen Shapiro (2013). “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: Abridged with Related Texts”, p.33, Hackett Publishing

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• The propensity to do good things is a choice.

  Shaun Cassidy

  Choices, Good Things

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• The dog commends himself to our favor by affording play to our propensity for mastery

  Thorstein Veblen

  Dog, Play, Mastery

  Thorstein Veblen (1993). “A Veblen Treasury: From Leisure Class to War, Peace, and Capitalism”, p.77, M.E. Sharpe

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• As actors, we deal with rejection so much more than any other business. So I don't care how much of a genius you are, if you don't have the propensity to be able to get back up every time you get knocked down, then you're not going to survive.

  Ryan Kwanten

  Rejection, Genius, Actors

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• There surely is in human nature an inherent propensity to extract all the good out of all the evil.

  Benjamin Haydon

  Evil, Human Nature, Inherent

  Benjamin Robert Haydon (1853). “Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon, historical painter”, p.472

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• The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals.

  Adam Smith

  Business, Men, Animal

  Adam Smith (1801). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”

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• Anyone who has lost track of time when using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come true and the tendency to miss lunch.

  Tim Berners-Lee

  Dream, Business, Lunch

  Interview with Kris Herbst for Internet World, www.w3.org. June 1994.

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• The human propensity is to believe that flukes of good fortune will never come to an end.

  Charles C. Mann

  Believe, Flukes, Ends

  Charles C. Mann (2011). “1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created”, p.256, Vintage

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• Self-love . . . is the sole antagonist of virtue, leading us constantly by our propensities to self-gratification in violation of our moral duties to others.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Love Is, Self, Moral

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private : Published by the Order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the Original Manuscripts, Deposited in the Department of State”, p.349

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• What ever is the natural propensity of a person is hard to overcome. If a dog were made a king, he would still gnaw at his shoes laces.

  Bill Vaughan

  Dog, Kings, Shoes

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• The continuance and frequent fits of anger produce in the soul a propensity to be angry; which oftentimes ends in choler, bitterness, and moronity, when the mid becomes ulcerated, peevish, and querulous, and is wounded by the least occurrence.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  War, Anger, Soul

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• With the exception of the instinct of self-preservation, the propensity for emulation is probably the strongest and most alert and persistent of the economic motives proper.

  Thorstein Veblen

  Business, Self, Emulation

  The Theory of the Leisure Class ch. 5 (1899)

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• The source of our actions resides in an unconscious propensity to regard ourselves as the center, the cause, and the conclusion of time. Our reflexes and our pride transform into a planet the parcel of flesh and consciousness we are.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Pride, Ego, Flesh

  Emile M. Cioran (1975). “A short history of decay”, Viking Books

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• If all people are unique, and if they are constantly changing each and every day, then all one can say about any social research finding is that it applied to that group of people on that given day, and given the propensity of humans to be different and to change, then it is unlikely that one would get the same results if one were to repeat the study.

  Wayne Dyer

  Change, Unique, People

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• Women have in their natures something akin to owls and fireflies. While men grow stupid and sleepy towards evening, they become brighter and more open-eyed, and show a propensity to flit and sparkle under the light of chandeliers.

  Abba Louisa Goold Woolson

  Stupid, Firefly, Men

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• A morbid propensity that causes great suffering in domestic life is often curiously infectious to the very person for whom it creates most suffering.

  Ada Leverson

  Suffering, Causes, Life Is

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