Writing is like a “lust,” or like “scratching when you itch.” Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I for one must get it out.
Impulse Quotes
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
There is no firm leash holding back sinful impulses… The doctrine of hell is not just some dusty, theological holdover from the unenlightened Middle Ages. It has significant social consequences. Without ultimate justice, people’s sense of moral obligation dissolves; social bonds are broken.
It is hard to fight against impulsive desire: whatever it wants, it will buy at the cost of the soul.
Above all, we are coming to understand that the arts incarnate the creativity of a free people. When the creative impulse cannot flourish, when it cannot freely select its methods and objects, when it is deprived of spontaneity, then society severs the root of art.
They didn’t do great things by deliberate choice but by a sort of impulse. If you young fellows were wise, the devil couldn’t do anything to you, but since you aren’t wise, you need us who are old. Our Lord God doesn’t do great things except by violence, as they say.
Obedience is a deeply ingrained behavior tendency, indeed a potent impulse overriding training in ethics, sympathy, and moral conduct… For a person to feel responsible for his actions, he must sense that the behavior has flowed from the self. It is easy to ignore responsibility when one is only an intermediate link in a chain […]
“I’m such an unlucky girl,” mourned Anne (of Green Gables). “I’m always getting into scrapes myself and getting my best friends – people I’d shed my heart’s blood for – into them too. Can you tell me why it is so, Mrs. Lynde?” “It’s because you’re too heedless and impulsive, child, that’s what. You never […]
Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.
The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.
