“claiming that the destructive practice of mountaintop removal mining, blowing the tops off mountains to get at the coal beneath, performs the "necessary" function of creating flat land for development To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe.” DesirePurposeMoralPracticeLandTearsDevelopmentSafeMountainCreatingFunctionTreasureDestructiveFlatsCoalRemovalMiningBowelsBurglars Author:Joseph Conrad
“I can at once become happy anywhere, for he is happy who has found himself a happy lot. In a word, happiness lies all in the functions of reason, in warrantable desires and virtuous practice.” I CanReasonHappinessLyingDesireFoundPracticeFunctionVirtuous Book:Meditations Source: Meditations
“To desire to be an artist is to desire to be a complete man in respect to some one function, to realize yourself utterly. A man is a poor thing who is content not to be an artist.” MenDesireArtistRealizingPoorFunction Author:Charles Horton Cooley
“The virtue of a faculty is related to the special function which that faculty performs. Now there are three elements in the soul which control action and the attainment of truth: namely, Sensation, Intellect, and Desire. Of these, Sensation never originates action, as is shown by the fact that animals have sensation but are not capable of action.” SoulFactsActionDesireThreeAnimalVirtueSpecialElementsCapableFunctionIntellectRelatedFacultySensationsAttainment Book:The Nicomachean ethics Source: The Nicomachean ethics
“As I see it then, the formula runs something like this: a man must choose a path which will let his ABILITIES function at maximum efficiency toward the gratification of his DESIRES.” MenRunningDesireAbilityPathFunctionFormulasEfficiencyMaximumGratification Book:Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967 Source: Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
“I see no reason in morality, why literature should not have as one of its intentions the arousing of thoughts of lust. It is one of the effects, perhaps one of the functions of literature to arouse desire, and I can discover no grounds for saying that sexual pleasure should not be among the objects of desire which literature presents to us, along with heroism, virtue, peace, death, food, wisdom, God, etc.” ShouldI CanReasonDesireLiteraturePleasureVirtueEffectsObjectsMoralityFunctionIntentionLustEtcNo ReasonHeroismObjects Of Desire Author:Lionel
“By and large it is uniformly true in mathematics that there is a time lapse between a mathematical discovery and the moment when it is useful; and that this lapse of time can be anything from 30 to 100 years, in some cases even more; and that the whole system seems to function without any direction, without any reference to usefulness, and without any desire to do things which are useful.” YearsWholeMomentsSeemsDesireCasesDiscoveryFunctionMathematicsMathematicalUsefulnessLapsesTime Lapse Author:John von Neumann
“Mastery is not a function of I.Q. or natural talent or wealthy parents who can send you to the best school, but rather the result of going through a learning process, fueled by the desire to grow and the persistence to push past any obstacles.” SchoolPastDesireGrowsProcessParentNaturalResultsTalentFunctionObstaclesPersistenceWealthyMasteryLearning ProcessNatural TalentBest School Author:Robert Greene