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Difficulty Quotes

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Difficulty Quotes

“Were not this desire of fame very strong, the difficulty of obtaining it, and the danger of losing it when obtained, would be sufficient to deter a man from so vain a pursuit.”

Men Would Be Desire Strong Danger Fame Losing Difficulty Pursuit Vain Sufficient Very Strong Obtaining

Book:The spectator

Source: The spectator

“Men love to trust God (as they profess) for what they have in their hands, in possession, or what lies in an easy view; place their desires afar off, carry their accomplishment behind the clouds out of their sight, interpose difficulties and perplexities -- their hearts are instantly sick. They cannot wait for God; they do not trust Him, nor ever did. Would you have the presence of God with you? Learn to wait quietly for the salvation you expect from Him.”

Men Heart Hands Lying Desire Easy Waiting Views Behinds Sick Sight Difficulty Salvation Clouds Possession Accomplishment Trust In God Presence Of God Afar Perplexity

Author:Owen Wilson

“'Everything beautiful occurs when the body / is suspended,' Helena Mesa quotes a performance artist who hangs his own pierced body in the air. Mesa's poems are artfully suspended between lyric and narrative, between humans and animals, between Latin America and the U.S., between desire and the difficulty of its fulfillment. Horse Dance Underwater is an inventive, musical, and powerful debut.”

Humans Body America Beautiful Desire Artist Animal Powerful Air Performances Horse Difficulty Musical Narrative Fulfillment Latin Latin America Suspended Debut Underwater Humans And Animals

Author:Mark Doty

“There is an urgent need to-day for the citizens of a democracy to think well. It is not enough to have freedom of the Press and parliamentary institutions. Our difficulties are due partly to our own stupidity, partly to the exploitation of that stupidity, and partly to our own prejudices and personal desires.”

Thinking Needs Wells Enough Desire Democracy Citizens Difficulty Prejudice Institutions Presses Stupidity Dues Exploitation Urgent Freedom Of The Press Parliamentary Personal Desire

Author:Susan Stebbing

“No nude, however abstract, should fail to arouse in the spectator some vestige of erotic feeling... The desire to grasp and be united with another human is so fundamental a part of our nature that our judgement of what is known as 'pure form' is inevitably influenced by it, and one of the difficulties of the nude as a subject for art is that these instincts cannot be hidden.”

Should Humans Art Feelings Form Desire United Known Failing Subjects Pure Art Is Difficulty Fundamentals Instinct Judgement Abstract Erotic Spectators

Book:The nude: a study in ideal form

Source: The nude: a study in ideal form

“Never give up prayer, and should you find dryness and difficulty, persevere in it for this very reason. God often desires to see what love your soul has, and love is not tried by ease and satisfaction.”

Giving Should Soul Reason Desire Prayer Love Is Love You Giving Up And Love Difficulty Satisfaction Your Soul Ease Never Giving Up Persevere

Book:The Prayers of Saint John of the Cross

Source: The Prayers of Saint John of the Cross

“What you want to acquire, you should dare to acquire by any means. What you want to see, even though it is with difficulty, you should see. You should not let it pass, thinking there will be another chance to see it or acquire it. It is quite unusual to have a second chance to materialize your desire.”

Thinking Want Should Mean Desire Chance Difficulty Dare What You Want Acquire Unusual Second Chance Another Chance

Author:Yosa Buson

“The more we desire for that which is superfluous, the more we meet with difficulties; our strength and possessions are spent in unnecessary things, and are wanting when required for that which is necessary.”

Desire Difficulty Possession Unnecessary Superfluous Unnecessary Things

Book:The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: The Guide for the Perplexed

“If you truly desire money so keenly that your desire is an obsession, you will have no difficulty in convincing yourself that you will acquire it. The object is to want money, and to be so determined to have it that you convince yourself that you will have it.”

Ifs Want Desire Objects Difficulty Determined Obsession Acquire Convince Convincing Convincing Yourself

Book:Get Rich Collection

Source: Get Rich Collection

“Anyone who is not totally dead to himself will soon find that he is tempted and overcome by piddling and frivolous things. Whoever is weak in spirit, given to the flesh and inclined to sensual things can, but only with great difficulty, drag himself away from his earthly desires. Therefore he is often gloomy and sad when he is trying to pull himself away from them, and easily gives way to anger should someone attempt to oppose him.”

Way Giving Should Trying Spirit Desire Given Weak Overcoming Difficulty Flesh Sensual Drag Tempted Gloomy Frivolous Earthly Desires

Author:Thomas a Kempis

“In Deuteronomy 11, God offers Israel a choice; either a life of productivity and enjoyment made possible by obedience to Him, or a life of difficulty and opposition made necessary by disobedience. The happiness Israel desires can only be theirs by being properly related to Him.”

Made Desire Choices Offers Difficulty Israel Productivity Obedience Related Enjoyment Opposition Disobedience

Author:Max Anders

“In matters of desire, don't get hastily involved because of easy availability; once you get involved, you will sink in deeply. In matters of principle, don't back off for fear of difficulty; once you back down, you will lose your ground entirely.”

Matter Desire Easy Loses Principles Involved Difficulty Taoism Get Involved Availability

Author:Zicheng Hong

“Diligence means to be keen in matters of virtue and justice, but worldly people use diligence to solve their economic difficulties. Frugality means to have little desire for material goods, but worldly people use frugality as a cover for stinginess. Thus do watchwords of enlightened life turn into tools for the private business of small people. What a pity!”

People Mean Littles Matter Use Desire Turns Justice Virtue Economic Materials Tools Difficulty Solve Pity Enlightened Taoism Goods Worldly Diligence Frugality Stinginess

Author:Zicheng Hong

“The difficulty we have in accepting responsibility for our behavior lies in the desire to avoid the pain of the consequences of that behavior.”

Pain Lying Desire Responsibility Accepting Behavior Consequence Difficulty Accepting Responsibility

Book:The Road Less Traveled, 25th Anniversary Edition: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth

Source: The Road Less Traveled, 25th Anniversary Edition: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth

“Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.”

Men Desire Difficulty Tongue Speakers Moderates

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“Our waking life's desire to shape the world to our convenience invites all manner of paradox and difficulty.”

World Desire Shapes Difficulty Paradox Waking Invites Convenience Waking Life

Book:Cities of the Plain

Source: Cities of the Plain

“How will you know the difficulties of being human, if you are always flying off to blue perfection? Where will you plant your grief seeds? Workers need ground to scrape and hoe, not the sky of unspecified desire.”

Ifs Knows Needs Humans Spiritual Desire Grief Sky Perfection Difficulty Blue Plant Workers Seeds Flying Being Human Hoe

Author:Rumi

“They trespassed upon my thoughts. They were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretense, because I felt so sure they could not possibly know the things I knew. Their bearing, which was simply the bearing of commonplace individuals going about their business in the assurance of perfect safety, was offensive to me like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the face of a danger it is unable to comprehend. I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in restraining myself from laughing in their faces, so full of stupid importance.”

Source: Heart of Darkness

“At first, when an idea, a poem, or the desire to write takes hold of you, work is a pleasure, a delight, and your enthusiasm knows no bounds. But later on you work with difficulty, doggedly, desperately. For once you have committed yourself to a particular work, inspiration changes its form and becomes an obsession, like a love-affair… which haunts you night and day! Once at grips with a work, we must master it completely before we can recover our idleness.”

Knows Writing Firsts Ideas Inspiration Form Desire Night Pleasure Particular Masters Difficulty Bounds Affair Committed Delight Obsession Enthusiasm Idleness Love Affair

Author:Natalie Clifford Barney

“What I am in search of is not so much the gratification of a curiosity or a passion for worldly life, but something far less conditional. I do not wish to go out into the world with an insurance policy in my pocket guaranteeing my return in the event of a disappointment, like some cautious traveller who would be content with a brief glimpse of the world. On the contrary, I desire that there should be hazards, difficulties and dangers to face; I am hungry for reality, for tasks and deeds, and also for privation and suffering.”

Source: Magister Ludi

“There is no man who loves a woman that does not desire to come to her for the renewal of his courage, for the cutting asunder of his difficulties. And that will be the mainspring of his desire for her. We are all so afraid, we are all so alone, we all so need from the outside the assurance of our own worthiness to exist.”

Men Needs Doe Desire Cutting Difficulty Assurance Renewal Worthiness

Book:The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion

Source: The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion

“She was fully, painfully aware that very rarely did midnight strike in two hearts at once, very rarely did midnight arouse two different equal desires, and that any dislocation in this, any indifference, was an indication of disunity, of the difficulties, the impossibilities of fusion between two human beings.”

Humans Heart Two Different Desire Human Beings Equal Difficulty Strikes Indifference Midnight Impossibility Indication Fusion Dislocation Two Hearts Disunity

Author:Anais Nin

“Life is indeed difficult, partly because of the real difficulties we must overcome in order to survive, and partly because of our own innate desire to always do better, to overcome new challenges, to self-actualize. Happiness is experienced largely in striving towards a goal, not in having attained things, because our nature is always to want to go on to the next endeavor.”

Want Real Self Life Is Desire Order Next Difficult Goal Challenges Goes On Overcoming Difficulty Strive Endeavor Innate New Challenges

Author:Albert Ellis

“I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in restraining myself from laughing in their faces, so full of stupid importance.”

Faces Desire Laughing Stupid Particular Importance Difficulty Enlightening Restraining

Book:Joseph Conrad Ultimate Collection: 18 Novels, 20+ Short Stories, Letters & Memoirs: Including Classics like Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Duel, The Secret Agent, Nostromo, Victory, The Shadow-Line & Under Western Eyes

Source: Joseph Conrad Ultimate Collection: 18 Novels, 20+ Short Stories, Letters & Memoirs: Including Classics like Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Duel, The Secret Agent, Nostromo, Victory, The Shadow-Line & Under Western Eyes

“Now, I confess myself as belonging to that class in the country who contemplate slavery as a moral, social and political evil, having due regard for its actual existence amongst us and the difficulties of getting rid of it in any satisfactory way, and to all the constitutional obligations which have been thrown about it; but, nevertheless, desire a policy that looks to the prevention of it as a wrong, and looks hopefully to the time when as a wrong it may come to an end.”

Source: The Complete Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln