"We are tossed about by external causes in many ways, and like waves driven by contrary winds, we waver and are unconscious of the issue and our fate.' We think we are most ourselves when we are most passionate, whereas it is then we are most passive, caught in some ancestral torrent of impulse or feeling, and swept on to a precipitate reaction which meets only part of the situation because without thought only part of a situation can be perceived."

Behavior, Reaction, Observation, Passion, Awareness

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"We are tossed about by external causes in many ways, and like waves driven by contrary winds, we waver and are unconscious of the issue and our fate.' We think we are most ourselves when we are most passionate, whereas it is then we are most passive, caught in some ancestral torrent of impulse or feeling, and swept on to a precipitate reaction which meets only part of the situation because without thought only part of a situation can be perceived."

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"Being petty allows you to make mountains out of molehills."

Anthony T. Hincks, British Writer

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"If you behave in a manner that poisons your relationship, don't be surprised when it dies."

Steve Maraboli, American Author

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"To probe for unconscious determinants of behavior and then define a man in their terms exclusively, ignoring his overt behavior altogether, is a greater distortion than ignoring the unconscious completely."

Willard Gaylin, American Scientist

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"There are two kinds of idiots - those who don't take action because they have received a threat, and those who think they are taking action because they have issued a threat."

Paulo Coelho, Brazilian Novelist

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"Why does a person spend money on a stamp to spout bile at a stranger?"

Barbara Kingsolver, American Novelist

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"I made a tactical error tonight with Wyatt." She paused "Horizontally." Sara laughed. "Again?"

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"Men and swords. My father said that if you put any able-bodied man, no matter how peaceful, into a room with a sword and a practice dummy and leave him alone, eventually the man would pick up the sword and try to stab the dummy. It is human nature."

Ilona Andrews, American Writer

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"There are two good reasons to put your napkin in your lap. One is that food might spill in your lap, and it is better to stain the napkin than your clothing. The other is that it can serve as a perfect hiding place. Practically nobody is nosey enough to take the napkin off a lap to see what is hidden there."

Lemony Snicket, American Author

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"The most perfect expression of human behavior is a string quartet."

Jeffrey Tate, English Musician

Behavior, Expression

"Vanity dies hard, in some obstinate cases it outlives the man."

Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish Writer

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Explore more quotes by Will Durant

"Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principle."

Government, Excess

"Grow strong, my comrade that you may standUnshaken when I fall; that I may knowThe shattered fragments of my song will comeAt last to finer melody in you;That I may tell my heart that you beginWhere passing I leave off, and fathom more."

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"Virtue is not news, and virtuous men, like happy nations, have no history."

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"The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds."

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"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance."

Education, Discovery, Ignorance

"But now and then liberty, in the slogans of the strong, means freedom from restraint in the exploitation of the weak."

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"To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves. Nothing is often a good thing to say, and always a clever thing to say."

Nothing,

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