Trenton Lee Stewart Quotes

Isn't history ultimately the result of our fear of boredom?

The reason that war is such a fascinating subject for writers is because it's a revealer. Put a bunch of people in an adrenaline-fuelled, life-or-death situation and their fundamental behaviours are exposed, the scrim is taken away and the motivations behind each personality come out to play.

Fear and greed are potent motivators. When both of these forces push in the same direction, virtually no human being can resist.

… people are far from acting generally according to the dictates of their interests, but oftener in consequence of their passions, though it may even prove injurious to their interests.

It's a funny thing... but people mostly have it backward. They think they live by what they want. But really, what guides them is what they're afraid of. What they don't want.

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.

As fast as I can tell there are only two emotions that keep the world spinning year after year...One is fear. The other is desire.

The powerful have no monopoly on greed, hatred, fear, or ignorance.

If you're not scared a lot you're not doing very much.

Whereas the law is passionless, passion must ever sway the heart of man.

Of all human foibles love of living is the most powerful.

Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion go hand in hand.

People tolerate those they fear further than those they love.

The world is ruled, and the destiny of civilization is established, by the human emotions.

You will find that reason, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom does; but that passions and weaknesses commonly usurp itsseat, and rule in its stead.

One will rarely err if extreme actions be ascribed to vanity, ordinary actions to habit, and mean actions to fear.

Do not underestimate the human being, who sometimes appears so simple. Even with sight as sharp as an eagle, a mind as sharp as a razor, senses more powerful than gods, hearing that can catch the music and the lamentations of life, your knowledge of humanity will never be total.

Human beings, thanks to culture and genetics, are inclined to be pessimistic, fearful, skeptical and believers in conspiracy theories. We also don't like change.

Men despise one another and flatter one another; and men wish to raise themselves above one another, and crouch before one another.

words alike make the destiny of empires and of individuals. Ambition, love, hate, interest, vanity, have words for their engines, and need none more powerful. Language is a fifth element - the one by which all the others are swayed.

School was more than academics; an education prepared you for the humdrum of real life: working with others, tempering one's personality to assimilate with the group but without losing your individual identity, understading the factors of logic, reasoning, and debate. For a person - vampire or human - to succeed in the world, unlocking the mysteries of the universe was insufficient. One would also need to grasp the mysteries of human nature.

Two passions have powerful influence on the affairs of men: the love of power and the love of money.

A great deal of what people say, think, or do is actually motivate by fear, which of course is always linked with having your focus on the future and being out of touch with the Now. As there are no problems in the Now, there is no fear either.

We are so constituted by Nature that we easily believe the things we hope for, but believe only with difficulty those we fear, and that we regard such things more or less highly than is just. This is the source of the superstitions by which men everywhere are troubled. For the rest, I don