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All I Quotes

“Instinctively I had followed Mama’s caution against strangers, but she had also taught me to treat everyone the same no matter what or how different they were or what race they were. “These are only visible images,” Mama said, “like the colors and shapes of a painting. You need to look deeper to discover what the painting is about or how it affects you. It’s the same with people.””

“Instinctively I started to panic when Dr. Martinez strapped my arm down, and then the panic just melted away, la la la. Someone took my other hand. Fang. I felt his calluses, his bones, his strength. “I’m so glad you’re here,” I slurred, smiling dopily up at him. I took in his startled, worried expression but dismissed it. “I know everything’s fine if you’re here.” I thought I saw his cheeks flush, but I wasn’t too sure of anything anymore.”

“Instincts are older, but thoughts are recent, that's why instincts are more powerful than thoughts - that's why it takes great will power to express a thought through action, while instincts come so easily. However, if we continue practicing our thoughts long enough, eventually the instincts that hold power over us will turn powerless. And this my friend, ought to be the next step of our evolution, and that's why it's no longer merely a matter of natural selection, it's what I hereby dub "sapient selection", that is the process of determining the path of our evolution ourselves.”

“Instincts are very different from intuition. Instincts guide our behavior without the involvement of conscious thought. As such, they are valuable and necessary for our survival—but they will keep us just there: surviving, not thriving. While instincts are innate, unconscious, and biologically driven behaviors, intuition can be consciously cultivated. Intuition is the intelligence of the heart. By listening to it, we develop sensitivity to the magic of life, gain wisdom, and we begin to find joy and beauty in the present moment. This gives us the courage to live fully—beyond the mere drive to survive.”

“Instintivamente acaricia o velo de cedro penumbroso, bosque arruivado a ensombrar-lhe o cimo das coxas; curva-se de novo e, admirada, vai tão longe quanto pode na abordagem tímida dos lábios de anil da molhada boca do seu ventre. A separá-los: penetrando, afagando-os, a sentir os dedos numa humidade lenta, um orvalho dolente, uma resina turva. Ali, onde há sucos e gosto sem ferida. Ali, onde há fenda, há céu, há mar. Mato de se perder na busca da vertigem no assombro da ousadia do acto; gosto e travo a rosa insatisfeita, odor de chuva, de cardo, de almíscar. Perfume de nardo a desatar-lhe os nervos, enquanto persegue o improvável mapa do delírio: mais acima a mina, e logo abaixo o poço. Modorra de papoila a florescer no alto, a entumescer ao tacto. Prazer diverso e gozo que a muda, e ela transgride, voa, cresce. E tanto no clítoris como na vulva, o bordado a cheio vai-se enredando, matizando, demorando nas caprochosas cores, nos desenhos, nas misteriosas linhas de agulha onde se enleia. Veia que o fogo entorna, toma e incendeia. Na procura do êxtase. E Leonor ondeia. Rola enovelada em cima do leito onde se distende, roda e cede a galgar o parapeito de si própria, deixando a razão apagada à cabeceira. Rodopia. Resvala. Mãos descendo e subindo, indo e vindo, na descoberta dos desvãos, do topo, dos secretos recantos de segredo, em todos os lugares e tempos que o orgasmo guarda. Entorna. Derrama. Grita e explode. Gemendo sob o pulso que lhe amordaça a fala pelo próprio avesso. Assim leve, assim solta, assim livre. Leonor corre, voa, nada, desvenda. E finalmente foge. Consigo mesma.”

“Instintivamente tengo simpatía por todos los experimentos Y por todos los que los hacen. ¿Por qué? Porque tienen el empeño de colocarse en un punto inicial como si antes no hubiera ocurrido nada. Porque el experimento es consecuencia de un talante especial: uno piensa que todo lo que hace es importante. Porque, de un modo repentino, importa el individuo humano, cualquiera que desee poner en práctica una idea y la tome sobre sus espaldas. Porque los experimentos requieren tesón y además dos cualidades que, en su combinación, son las más importantes: resistencia y paciencia. Instintivamente siento desconfianza frente a todos los experimentadores. ¿Por qué? Porque van en busca del éxito y quieren imponerse. A menudo se ve que la carga que han tirado les era completamente desconocida; quieren llegar a la cumbre con menos equipaje, es decir con menos esfuerzo. Aceptan a cualquier aliado; se muestran comprensivos ante la estructura del poder del mundo - tal como la encuentran - y, de un modo indiscriminado, para propagar su experimento, utilizan todo aquello que no llega al ámbito más reducido de éste. Independientemente de qué sea aquello de lo que han prescindido para alcanzar lo nuevo, he aquí que, de repente, se encuentran otra vez con lo que han dejado, como si fuera su arma. A menudo viven en grupúsculos, forman capillitas, piensan, calculan, administran. El contraste entre sus verdaderos propósitos y su modo de comportarse entre los demás clama venganza al cielo. Insisten en este contraste; tienen que hacerlo porque cualquier compromiso que intentara equilibrar los dos aspectos de su existencia sería el fin de su experimento como tal. Pero ¿qué van a hacer? ¿Qué se puede esperar de este mundo? Su experimento quiere vivir, ¿van ellos a morir de hambre? De entre ellos, los que han nacido para mártires son los menos. La resistencia la practican en un terreno acotado y muy reducido, y es muy posible que el resto de su persona permanezca completamente incólume. Cuando se juntan con otros, piensan que éstos los entienden y están buscando lo mismo; también aquéllos imitan a éstos y de ahí es de donde se nutre su resistencia. Lo que se espera de ellos corresponde a un postulado ascético y a menudo no tiene que ver lo más mínimo con lo nuevo que ellos intentan encontrar. En el fondo lo que la gente desea es que enloquezcan con su experimento y que al final acaben fracasando. Luego, cuando estén locos o hayan muerto, es decir, cuando ya no sean un estorbo, puede que a los otros se les ocurra lo que ellos han hecho y lo exploten. No hay que darles excesiva importancia a estos imitadores; son gente que se aprovecha de lo que los otros inventaron en cierta ocasión; sin embargo, en definitiva, nosotros hacemos lo mismo. Por esto, lo que uno desea es la pureza del experimento, su rigor, su aislamiento de todo lo que no sea él. Sólo entonces se cree en él; se quiere un experimento que no tenga historia. Los inventores y los santos se han fundido en un solo personaje. Es posible que este híbrido que el hombre desea sea un monstruo, un engendro de una época en la que las religiones están en quiebra. Pero es posible también que lo único que necesitamos sea este personaje. Estructuras por todas partes; el antisueño contra la destrucción.”

“Institusi pendidikan tidak mengajarkan manusia untuk bebas bermanuver dalam pola pikir, tetapi untuk seragam dalam berpikir dan menciptakan manusia-manusia patuh dan siap berintegrasi dengan sistem. Taburlah benih-benih pemberontakan atas kemunafikan dan penyeragaman. Ciptakanlah karya-karya penopang pembaruan, literatur-literatur penjinak keberingasan sekte-sekte primitif warisan orde kegelapan.”

“Institutional Christianity has had clear secular benefits to American life for hundreds of years. It's played both a prophetic role in terms of generating moral critiques of American excesses, and so on, and also a communal role, in terms of building community as the country moved westward to the role my own Catholic Church played in assimilating generations of immigrants.”

“Institutional psychiatry is a continuation of the Inquisition. All that has really changed is the vocabulary and the social style. The vocabulary conforms to the intellectual expectations of our age: it is a pseudo-medical jargon that parodies the concepts of science. The social style conforms to the political expectations of our age: it is a pseudo-liberal social movement that parodies the ideals of freedom and rationality.”

“Institutionalized desublimation thus appears to be an aspect of the "conquest of transcendence" achieved by the one-dimensional society. Just as this society tends to reduce, and even absorb opposition (the qualitative difference!) in the realm of politics and higher culture, so it does in the instinctual sphere. The result is the atrophy of the mental organs for grasping the contradictions and the alternatives and, in the one remaining dimension of technological rationality, the Happy Consciousness comes to prevail.”

“Institutionalized motherhood demands of women maternal 'instinct' rather than intelligence, selflessness rather than self-realization, relation to others rather than the creation of self. Motherhood is 'sacred' so long as its offspring are 'legitimate' -- that is, as long as the child bears the name of a father who legally controls the mothe.r”

“Institutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people. As members of such an economy, we have all been programmed to respond to the human difference between us with fear and loathing and to handle that difference in one of three ways: ignore it, and if that is not possible, copy it if we think it is dominant, or destroy it if we think it is subordinate. But we have no patterns for relating across our human differences as equals. As a result, those differences have been misnamed and misused in the service of separation and confusion.”

“Institutionalized rejection of differences is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people. As members of such an economy, we have all been programmed to respond to the human differences between us with fear and loathing and to handle that difference in one of three ways: ignore it, and if that is not possible, copy it if we think it is dominant, or destroy it if we think it is subordinate.”