Whenever I get to a low point, I go back to the basics. I ask myself, “Why am I doing this?” It comes down to passion.
—Lyn St. James (b.1947) American Sportsperson
There is no greatness without a passion to be great, whether it’s the aspiration of an athlete or an artist, a scientist, a parent, or a business person.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
Bitter and poisonous as a serpent’s poison is sensual desire with which fools are infatuated. Crowded in hell, they have to spend their long, tortured lives there.
—Buddhist Teaching
Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.—It is the real allegory of the tale of Orpheus; it moves stones, and charms brutes.—It is the genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victories without it.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
If you aren’t passionate about a vision, it’s hard to have faith in it.
—Russell Simmons (b.1957) American Music Promoter
Life has always taken place in a tumult without apparent cohesion, but it only finds its grandeur and its reality in ecstasy and in ecstatic love.
—Georges Bataille (1897–1962) French Essayist, Intellectual
For one heat, all know, doth drive out another,
One passion doth expel another still.
—George Chapman (c.1560–1634) English Poet, Playwright
Man never rises to great truths without enthusiasm.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
This world belongs to the energetic.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
There is scarcely any passion without struggle.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
In things pertaining to enthusiasm, no man is sane who does not know how to be insane on proper occasions.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
In strong natures, if resistance to temptation is of granite, so the passions that they admit are of fire.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
If you have no wish, how can it possibly come true?
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
The passions are the winds that fill the sails of the vessel.—They sink it at times; but without them it would be impossible to make way.—Many things that are dangerous here below, are still necessary.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Men spend their lives in the service of their passions, instead of employing their passions in the service of their life.
—Richard Steele (1672–1729) Irish Writer, Politician
Enthusiasm signifies God in us.
—Anne Louise Germaine de Stael (1766–1817) French Woman of Letters
However vast a man’s spiritual resources, he is capable of but one great passion.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Passions makes us feel, but never see clearly.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
Energy is the essence of life. Every day you decide how you’re going to use it by knowing what you want and what it takes to reach that goal, and by maintaining focus.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
Man is to be found in reason, God in the passions.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
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 its spark.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do work that matters, this is it.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
The greater the man, the stronger his passion.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
The world belongs to the enthusiast who keeps cool.
—William McFee (1881–1966) English Writer
Many persons in reasoning on the passions, make a continual appeal to commonsense. But passion is without commonsense, and we must frequently discard the one in speaking of the other.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
When natural inclination develops into a passionate desire, one advances towards his goal in seven-league boots.
—Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian-American Electrical Engineer, Inventor
Almost all men are born with every passion to some extent, but there is hardly a man who has not a dominant passion to which the others are subordinate. Discover this governing passion in every individual; and when you have found the master passion of a man, remember never to trust to him where that passion is concerned.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
The worst sin—perhaps the only sin—passion can commit is to be joyless.
—Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) British Crime Writer
The pleasure of love is in loving; we are happier in the passion we feel than in the passion we inspire
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
I rate enthusiasm even above professional skill.
—Edward Victor Appleton (1892–1965) English Physicist
May I govern my passions with absolute sway, and grow wiser and better as life wears away.
—Isaac Watts (1674–1748) English Hymn writer
He did it with all his heart, and prospered.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Every civilization is, among other things, an arrangement for domesticating the passions and setting them to do useful work.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
What should man do in order to live? Deaden his passions. What should man do in order to die? Give himself entirely to life.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
You’ve got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.
—John Irving (b.1942) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
There are moments when our passions speak and decide for us, and we seem to stand by and wonder. They carry in them an inspiration of crime, that in one instant does the work of long premeditation.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Just as the bamboo is killed by its own fruit, so is a wicked person ruined by hatred, greed and delusion born of his own wicked mind.
—Buddhist Teaching
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Passion and purpose go hand in hand. When you discover your purpose, you will normally find it’s something you’re tremendously passionate about.
—Steve Pavlina (b.1971) American Motivational Speaker
If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Mythologist, Writer, Lecturer
We must act out passion before we can feel it.
—Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) French Philosopher, Playwright, Novelist, Screenwriter, Political Activist
Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
A vigorous mind is as necessarily accompanied with violent passions as a great fire with great heat.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence, but in the mastery, of his passions.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
What profits us, that we from heaven derive a soul immortal, and with looks erect survey the stars, if, like the brutal kind, we follow where our passions lead the way?
—Claudian (c.370–c.404 CE) Roman Poet
Riding a horse is not a gentle hobby, to be picked up and laid down like a game of Solitaire. It is a grand passion.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher