“Willpower is what separates us from the animals. It's the capacity to restrain our impulses, resist temptation - do what's right and good for us in the long run, not what we want to do right now. It's central, in fact, to civilisation.” WantLongFactsRunningHumanityAnimalHuman NatureDisciplineRight NowGoodnessCapacitySeparationResistanceTemptationImpulseCivilizedLong RunsSelf ControlWillpowerCivilisationRestraining Author:Roy Baumeister
“Man is an evasive beast, given to cultivating strange notions about himself. He is humiliated by his simian ancestry, and tries to deny his animal nature, to persuade himself that he is not limited by its weaknesses nor concerned in its fate. And this impulse may be harmless, when it is genuine. But what are we to say when we see the formulas of heroic self-deception made use of by unheroic self-indulgence?” MenTryingMayMadeSelfUseGivenAnimalFateStrangeWeaknessConcernedNotionDenyGenuineDeceptionImpulseBeastFormulasHeroicIndulgenceSelf DeceptionAncestryHumiliatedCultivatingSelf Indulgence Author:Upton Sinclair
“The idea of duty, that recognition of something to be lived for beyond the mere satisfaction of self, is to the moral life what the addition of a great central ganglion is to animal life. No man can begin to mould himself on a faith or an idea without rising to a higher order of experience: a principle of subordination, of self-mastery, has been introduced into his nature; he is no longer a mere bundle of impressions, desires, and impulses.” MenHas BeensIdeasSelfDesireOrderAnimalMoralPrinciplesDutyHigherMereSatisfactionImpressionRecognitionImpulseRisingMasterySelf MasteryBundlesMouldAnimal LifeSubordinationMoral Life Book:Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated) Source: Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)
“Animals don't even try to look any different from what nature intended. They humbly wear their shells, scales, spines, plumes, pelts, and down. ... The conscious impulse to change one's appearance is found only among humans.” TryingHumansLooksDifferentFoundAnimalConsciousAppearanceScalesAuthenticityImpulseShellsSpine Book:Nonrequired Reading: Prose Pieces Source: Nonrequired Reading: Prose Pieces
“Society expects man to be a passive social animal who believes like the People of the Field in "Jurgen" that "to do what you always have done" and "what is expected of you" are the twin rules of life. This, is course, is not true. The wanton crucifixion of impulses, the unnecessary blocking and frustration of the drives and urges, are an evil that reflects itself in sophistication, ennui and boredom, dissatisfaction, melancholy, fatigue, anxiety and neurosis.” PeopleMenLifeBelieveDoneCoursesEvilSocialAnimalFieldsAnxietyExpectedBlockImpulseBoredomFrustrationUrgesMelancholyPassiveTwinsUnnecessaryFatigueDissatisfactionNeurosisSophisticationCrucifixionEnnuiWantonRules Of Life Author:Abraham Myerson
“So long as men are compassionate to such a degree that they cannot hear a fly struggling in a spider's web without emotion it can never be reasonably maintained that it is their natural impulse to wound and kill the dumb animals, or to butcher one another in what is called the field of honour.” MenLongNaturalAnimalEmotionStruggleFieldsDegreesWoundsDumbImpulseHonourCompassionateAnimal RightsSpidersButchers Author:John Newton