Goals are essentially private things.
Our destiny is determined, not by what we possess, but by what possess us.
The important thing about human beings is not what they do, but why they do it.
We go where our deepest desires take us.
We often think ourselves inconsistent creatures, when we are the furthest from it, and all the variety of shapes and contradictory appearances we put on, are in truth but so many different attempts to gratify the same governing appetite.
Our true passions are selfish.
Men decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, hope, fear, illusion or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent, or statute.
Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present. Fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead.
Nobody is driven by abstractions like 'seeking truth.
I'm probably not motivated by a lot of things that people think I am.
All men are idolators, some of fame, others of self-interest, most of pleasure.
No one does anything from a single motive.
What you of the CHOAM directorate seem unable to understand is that you seldom find real loyalties in commerce. ... Men must want to do things of their own innermost drives. People, not commercial organizations or chains of command, are what make great civilizations work. Every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces. If you over-organize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatness - they cannot work and their civilization collapses.
The first glance at History convinces us that the actions of men proceed from their needs, their passions, their characters and talents; and impresses us with the belief that such needs, passions and interests are the sole spring of actions.
Love, desire, ambition, faith - without them, life's so simple, believe me.
The passions are the winds which fill the sails of the vessel; they sink it at times, but without them it would be impossible to make way.
Power, greed, and perhaps more than anything, ego, are powerful emotions and motivators.
The motives that lead us to do anything might be arranged like the thirty-two winds and might be given names on the same pattern: for instance, "bread-bread-fame" or "fame-fame-bread."
I'm increasingly realising our consciousness and subconsciousness are extremely different, and our subconsciousness motivates us, but so far, I don't know what drove or motivates me.
I think a lot of people are curious about what makes people do what they do, and I guess my curiosity isn't hidden in any way.
Take mankind as they are, and what are they governed by? Their passions.
We are puppets of our subconscious desires.
Every man had his personal habits, passions, and impulses toward goodness, beauty, and truth.
The beauty or ugliness of a character lay not only in its achievements, but in its aims and impulses; its true history lay, not among things done, but among things willed.
The thing you start noticing as books go by, is that you become aware not only of a shape of a career, but of your themes and interests. You don't want writing tricks where you make the same joke every time, but you do start to notice what consumes your mind, or what drives you.
