Quentin Crisp Quotes

I try my best to really think about things before I react and respond.

Don't let your emotions overpower your intelligence.

Choosing what we think rather than reaction to our emotions.

Never let your emotions overrule your head.

If you don't control your emotions, your emotions will control your acts, and that's not good.

The Rolling Stones seemed very loose and wild, but when you read about them, you realize that everything they did is very deliberate.

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.

Anger is an emotion, not a compass.

I don't ever make moves under pressure.

Time is your friend; impulse is your enemy.

I don't guess. I think. I ponder. I deduce. Then I decide. But I never guess.

Let the sap of reason quench the fire of passion.

Every impulse of feeling should be guided by reason; and, in my opinion, exertion should always be in proportion to what is required.

When you need to make a decision, don't let your emotions vote.

Let reason govern desire.

Take heed lest passion sway Thy judgement to do aught, which else free will Would not admit.

A man is rational in proportion as his intelligence informs and controls his desires.

If you did everything your mind told you to do, you do some really strange stuff. You'll probably be in jail, you'll be in trouble. But, it's all about control. We all have to control our feelings. That's the thing that separates us from animals.

It is best if we do not listen to or look at the person whom we consider to be the cause of our anger. Like a fireman, we have to pour water on the blaze first and not waste time looking for the one who set the house on fire. "Breathing in, I know that I am angry. Breathing out, I know that I must put all my energy into caring for my anger." So we avoid thinking about the other person, and we refrain from doing or saying anything as long as our anger persists. If we put all our mind into observing our anger, we will avoid doing any damage that we may regret later.

I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires.

A man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting... Thus a man of knowledge sweats and puffs and if one looks at him he is just like an ordinary man, except that the folly of his life is under his control.

There are those who say that temptation can be barricaded beyond the door. The ones who think that stray desires can be driven out of the heart like the moneychangers from the temple. Maybe they can, if you patrol your weak points day and night, don't look, don't smell, don't dream.

I do not take things to the heart. I calculate and I do what needs to be done. If I were to start acting emotionally, it would destroy my work.

Keep your passions in check, but beware of giving your reason free rein.

Reason should direct, and appetite obey.