Edmund Spenser Quotes

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

I think those who object to my characterizing man as simple want somehow to retain a deep mystery at his core.

Concupiscence and force are the source of all our actions; concupiscence causes voluntary actions, force involuntary ones.

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

Economic man and sensual man are not suppressible.

People tend to simplify things.

When it comes to power as it functions between humans, it all comes down to desire. If you know what someone wants, you can control them. It is as simple as that. And the reverse is also true: If you have control over your own desires, no one will ever own you. As humans, we are plagued with desire - it consumes us, it fuels us, it destroys us.

People are selfish, man. They want what they want; they don't care what you want.

Pussy really is the ultimate motivator of all mankind. No, don't clap, this is a flaw in the system!

The whole world yearns after freedom, yet each creature is in love with his chains; this is the first paradox and inextricable knot of our nature.

We always strive after what is forbidden, and desire the things refused us.

However exquisitely human nature may have been described by writers, the true practical system can be learned only in the world.

Human nature has a tendency to admire complexity but reward simplicity.

Man has an infinite capacity to rationalize - especially when it comes to what he wants to eat.

O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily do, not knowing what they do.

We were all brought up to want things and maybe the world isn't big enough for all that wanting. I don't know. I don't know anything

The beast in us must be[78] wheedled: ethic is necessary, that we may not be torn to pieces.

Few love what they may have.

It is not because men's desires are strong that they act ill; it is because their consciences are weak.

Lust is the source of all our actions, and humanity.

Humans have the remarkable ability to get exactly what they must have. But there is a difference between a 'must' and 'want'.

Man tends always to satisfy his needs and desires with the least possible exertion.

Hence money may be dirt, although dirt is not money.

There is a universal moral law, as distinct from a moral code, which consists of certain statements of fact about the nature of man, and by behaving in conformity with which, man may enjoy his true freedom.

Men never desire anything very eagerly which they desire only by the dictates of reason.