Laurence Sterne - Edmund Burke - David Hume - Aristotle - Jean-Paul Sartre - William Osler - John Milton - Soren Kierkegaard - Michelangelo: Heart and Stone TV - Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Charles Baudelaire - Duc de la Rochefoucauld - John Dryden - Coco Chanel - Jack Kerouac - James Joyce - Virginia Woolf - Alfred Lord Tennyson - Denis Diderot - Ice-T - William Shakespeare - Alexander Pope - Bahya ibn Paquda - Bhagavad Gita - Donovan Bailey - Albert Camus - Denis Diderot - John Gay - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Vladimir Nabokov - George Graham - Prince, Son & Heir: Charles at 70 TV - Patrick Dixon - Benjamin Disraeli -
Whenever a man talks loudly against religion, – always suspect that it is not his reason, but his passions which have got the better of him. Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy
Passion for fame: a passion which is the instinct of all great souls. Edmund Burke
Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them. David Hume, A Treatise upon Human Nature
The law is reason, free from passion. Artistotle
Man is a useless passion. Jean-Paul Sartre, L’Etre et le Neant 1943
We must act out our passion before we can feel it. Jean-Paul Sartre
The natural man has only two primal passions, to get and beget. William Osler, Science and Immortality, 1904
Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules
Passions, Desires, and Fears, is more than King. John Milton, Paradise Regain’d, Book II 466 - 467
Because of its tremendous solemnity death is the light in which great passions, both good and bad, become transparent, no longer limited by outward appearances. Soren Kierkegaard
What does it mean to follow your passions to the point where they no longer belong to you? Michelangelo: Heart and Stone starring Rutger Hauer & Massimo Odierna & Giancarlo Giannini et al, Sky Arts 2013
The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion; it is the current which he puts forth which sweeps you along in his passion. Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, and coldly determined to seek the means of expressing passion in the most visible manner. In this dual character, be it said in passing, we find the two distinguishing marks of the most substantial geniuses, extreme geniuses. Charles Baudelaire
Absence diminishes commonplace passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and kindles fires. Duc de la Rochefoucauld, Maximes, 1678
What passion cannot Music raise and quell? John Dryden
Passion always goes, and boredom stays. Coco Chanel
My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them. Jack Kerouac
Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age. James Joyce
My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery – always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud. And why? What’s this passion for? Virginia Woolf
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions. Alfred Lord Tennyson
There is only one passion, the passion for happiness. Denis Diderot
Passion makes the world go round. Love just makes it a safer place. Ice-T, The Ice Opinion
What passion hangs these weights upon my tongue? William Shakespeare, As You Like It I ii 247, Orlando.
How all the other passions fleet to air,
As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair,
And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy. William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice III ii 108-110, Portia
Give me that man
That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him
In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee. William Shakespeare, Hamlet III ii 76
My blood begins my safer guides to rule,
And passion, having my best judgement collied,
Essays to lead the way. William Shakespeare, Othello II iii 198-200, Othello
O well-painted passion! ibid. IV i 268
The ruling passion, be it what it will,
The ruling passion conquers reason still. Alexander Pope, Epistles to Several Persons, 1735
You should know, O man, that the greatest enemy you have in the world is your inclination. Bahya ibn Paquda, Jewish philosopher
But a man who is a slave of his passions, who works for selfish ends, who is greedy, indolent and despondent, and also procrastinating, is a man of the darkness of Tamas. Bhagavad Gita: Krishna’s Dialogue on the Soul 18:27
But the pleasure which comes from the craving of the senses with the objects of their desire, which seems at first a drink of sweetness, but is found in the end a cup of poison, is the pleasure of passion, impure. ibid. 18:38
Follow your passion, be prepared to work hard and sacrifice, and, above all, don't let anyone limit your dreams. Donovan Bailey
There is scarcely any passion without struggle. Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
To attempt the destruction of our passions is the height of folly. What a noble aim is that of the zealot who tortures himself like a madman in order to desire nothing, love nothing, feel nothing, and who, if he succeeded, would end up a complete monster! Denis Diderot
My passion is as mustard strong;
I sit, all sober sad;
Drunk as a piper all day long,
Or like a March hare mad. John Gay, A New Song of New Similes
Reason is the slave of passion. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
Her legs, lovely live legs, were not too close together, and when my hand located what I sought, a dreamy and eerie expression, half-pleasure, half-pain, came over those childish features. She sat a little higher than I, and whenever in her solitary ecstasy she was led to kiss me, her head would bend with a sleepy, soft, dropping movement that was almost woeful, and her bare knees caught and compressed my wrist, and slackened again; and her quivering mouth, distorted by the acridity of some mysterious position, with a sibilant intake of breath came near my face. She would try to relieve the pain of love by first roughly rubbing her dry lips against mine; then my darling would draw away with a nervous toss of her hair, and then again come darkly near and let me feed on her open mouth, while with a generosity that was ready to offer her everything, my heart, my throat, my entrails, I gave her to hold in her awkward fist the sceptre of my passion. Vladimir Nabokov
It’s hard to be passionate twice a week. George Graham, football manager
His life’s work has been dominated by three particular passions: caring for the environment, preserving our heritage and giving young people fresh opportunities. Prince, Son & Heir: Charles at 70, BBC 2018
Motivation is a battle for the heart, not just an appeal to the mind. Passion is always an expression of the soul. Patrick Dixon, Building a Better Business 2005
Man is only truly great when he acts from the passions. Benjamin Disraeli, Coningsby