Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

In men, we various ruling passions find;
In women two almost divide the kind;
Those only fix'd, read more

In men, we various ruling passions find;
In women two almost divide the kind;
Those only fix'd, they first or last obey.
The love of pleasure, and the love of sway.

What the public wants is the image of passion, not passion itself.

What the public wants is the image of passion, not passion itself.

He will hold thee, when his passion shall have spent its novel
force,
Something better than his dog, read more

He will hold thee, when his passion shall have spent its novel
force,
Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse.

Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron read more

Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth it's spark.

O that my tongue were in the thunder's mouth!
Then with passion would I shake the world,
read more

O that my tongue were in the thunder's mouth!
Then with passion would I shake the world,
And rouse from sleep that fell anatomy
Which cannot hear a lady's feeble voice,
Which scorns a modern invocation.

Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It
merely intensifies it. We can have but one great read more

Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It
merely intensifies it. We can have but one great experience at
best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as
often as possible.

It is easier to exclude harmful passions than to rule them, and to deny them admittance than to control them read more

It is easier to exclude harmful passions than to rule them, and to deny them admittance than to control them after they have been admitted.

May I govern my passions with absolute sway,
And grow wiser and better as my strength wears away.

May I govern my passions with absolute sway,
And grow wiser and better as my strength wears away.