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Circumstances Quotes

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Circumstances Quotes

“Through certain humors or passions, and from temper merely, a man may be completely miserable, let his outward circumstances be ever so fortunate.”

Men May Certain Passion Circumstances Miserable Fortunate Temper

Author:Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

“Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind. The difference lies not in the respective natures of savagery and civilization, but in their attendant circumstances, institutions, and so forth. The difference, therefore, does not operate in every sense, but it does in most of them. Even the most civilized peoples, in short, can be fired with passionate hatred for each other.”

Mind Doe Lying Passion Differences Circumstances Civilization Hatred Institutions Passionate Civilized Savages Savagery

Author:Carl von Clausewitz

“Men who are sincere in defending their freedom, will always feel concern at every circumstance which seems to make against them; it is the natural and honest consequence of all affectionate attachments, and the want of it is a vice. But the dejection lasts only for a moment; they soon rise out of it with additional vigor; the glow of hope, courage and fortitude, will, in a little time, supply the place of every inferior passion, and kindle the whole heart into heroism.”

Source: Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings of ThomasPaine

“Man liveth from hour to hour, and knoweth not what may happen; Influences circle him on all sides, and yet must he answer for his actions: For the being that is master of himself, bendeth events to his will, But a slave to selfish passions is the wavering creature of circumstance.”

Men May Happens Action Passion Sides Hours Answers Influence Events Masters Circumstances Creatures Slave Selfish Circles Willpower Wavering

Book:Tupper's Poetical Works: Proverbial Philosophy, A Thousand Lines, Hactenus

Source: Tupper's Poetical Works: Proverbial Philosophy, A Thousand Lines, Hactenus

“It seems idle to rail at ambition merely because it is a boundless passion; or rather is not this circumstance an argument in its favor? If one would be employed or amused through life, should we not make choice of a passion that will keep one long in play?”

Ifs Should Long Play Seems Would Be Choices Passion Circumstances Ambition Argument Favors Idle Employed Boundless Rail Amused

Book:Essays on Men and Manners

Source: Essays on Men and Manners

“My heart is tuned to sorrow, and the strings Vibrate most readily to minor chords, Searching and sad; my mind is stuffed with words Which voice the passion and the ache of things: Illusions beating with their baffled wings Against the walls of circumstance.”

Mind Heart Passion Voice Wall My Heart Circumstances Sorrow Illusion Wings Strings Minors Ache Chords Vibrate Baffled

Book:Complete poetical works: With an introd. by Louis Untermeyer

Source: Complete poetical works: With an introd. by Louis Untermeyer

“Most of the earth's inhabitants work to get by. They work because they have to. They didn't pick this or that kind of job out of passion; the circumstances of their lives did the choosing for them. Loveless work, boring work, work valued only because others haven't got even that much, however loveless and boring - this is one of the harshest human miseries. And there's no sign that coming centuries will produce any changes for the better as far as this goes.”

Humans Kind Earth Jobs Passion Century Havens Produce Circumstances Picks Misery Boring Change For The Better Loveless

Author:Wislawa Szymborska

“Passion, and passion in its profoundest, is not a thing demanding a palatial stage whereon to play its part. Down among the groundlings, among the beggars and rakers of the garbage, profound passion is enacted. And the circumstances that provoke it, however trivial or mean, are no measure of its power. In the present instance the stage is a scrubbed gun deck, and one of the external provocations a man-of-war's-man's spilled soup.”

Men Mean War Play Passion Stage Circumstances Gun Profound Instance Provoking Soup Garbage Beggar Deck Provocation

Book:Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories

Source: Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories

“No doubt hard work is a great police agent. If everybody were worked from morning till night, and then carefully locked up, the register of crime might be greatly diminished. But what would become of human nature? Where would be the room for growth in such a system of things? It is through sorrow and mirth, plenty and need, a variety of passions, circumstances, and temptations, even through sin and misery, that men's natures are developed.”

Source: Friends in Council: A Series of Readings and Discourse Thereon