"De Tocqueville considered the impulse toward well-being as one of the strongest impulses of a democratic society. He can't be blamed for underestimating the destructive powers generated by this same impulse."
Impulse quotes
Impulse
122 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Impulse quotes (page 2 of 7)
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"In the knowledge of truth, what really matters is the possession of it, not the impulse under which it was sought."
"What is the impulse that drove to direct? To me, it seems so immense. Just having a rock 'n' roll band, or to go from the solitude of writing and to having to collaborate, is almost schizophrenic."
"Man governs himself more by impulse than reason"
"The thinker philosophizes as the lover loves. Even were the consequences not only useless but harmful, he must obey his impulse."
"It is a youthful failing to be unable to control one's impulses."
"In the documentary impulse, two species of 'fact' exist side by side: one is coolly objective and the other is fraught, diverse and emotive; one figurative, the other abstract; one prosaic, the other poetic; one factual, the other romantic."
"I've always had this impulse to be destructive."
"And my music is always such a release of what I feel inside, an impulse."
"What is now an act of reason, was but blind impulse."
"Love, like fire, cannot subsist without constant impulse; it ceases to live from the moment it ceases to hope or to fear."
"Michael Jackson is a very weird impulse. It was the exploration of something overtly pop, to the point where pop is kitsch. It's also an exaggeration when placed across from the race riots. Because again you have the police department and you have Michael Jackson."
"Part of the very impulse of writing for me is actually wanting to get away from myself."
"Malice remains its animating impulse."
"There's a general impulse to distract the grieving person - as if you could."
"False conclusions which have been reasoned out are infinitely worse than blind impulse."
"I am the very slave of circumstance And impulse -- borne away with every breath!"