#destructive

For a solitary animal egoism is a virtue that tends to preserve and improve the species: in any kind of community it becomes a destructive vice. ↗

— Erwin Schrodinger

#any #becomes #community #destructive #egoism

Wars based on principle are far more destructive... the attacker will not destroy that which he is after. ↗

— Alan Watts

#based #destroy #destructive #far #more

This avidity alone, of acquiring goods and possessions for ourselves and our nearest friends, is insatiable, perpetual, universal, and directly destructive of society. ↗

— David Hume

#alone #avidity #destructive #directly #friends

When I was a young man and very well thought of, I couldn't ask aught that the ladies denied. I nibbled their hearts like a handful of raisins, And I never spoke love but I knew that I lied. But I said to myself, 'Ah, they none of them know The secret I shelter and savor and save I wait for the one who will see through my seeming, And I'll know when I love by the way I behave.' The years drifted over like clouds in the heavens; The ladies went by me like snow on the wind. I charmed and I cheated, deceived and dissembled, And I sinned, and I sinned, and I sinned, and I sinned. But I said to myself, 'Ah, they none of them see There's part of me pure as the whisk of a wave. My lady is late but she'll find I've been faithful, And I'll know when I love by the way I behave.' At last came a lady both knowing and tender, Saying, 'you're not at all what they take you to be.' I betrayed her before she had quite finished speaking, And she swallowed cold poison and jumped in the sea. And I say to myself when there's time for a word, As I gracefully grow more debauched and depraved, 'Ah, love may be strong, but a habit is stronger And I knew when I loved by the way I behaved. ↗

— Peter S. Beagle

#destructiveness #habit #lament #sin #vice

Not only did God deliver me from the bondage of alcoholism, he also blessed my family financially because of my commitment to honor what he had done for me and for not doing what I believed could possibly be destructive to others. ↗

— Richard Kiel

#also #because #believed #blessed #bondage

The idea that you can get everything you want in one person is destructive, and maybe when you accept that the number is closer to 50 or 60 or 70 percent, that's when you can start to make some progress in choosing the right person. ↗

— Michelle Williams

#choosing #closer #destructive #everything #get

I have known war as few men now living know it. It's very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes. ↗

— Douglas MacArthur

#destructiveness #disputes #few #few men #foe

In middle school, we are all so damn insecure. It was the worst time for me, really destructive, like slapping myself across the face but loving it. Now I have to be an adult and change myself. I have to be a bigger person. ↗

— Nikki Reed

#adult #bigger #change #damn #destructive

Only the liberation of the natural capacity for love in human beings can master their sadistic destructiveness. ↗

— Wilhelm Reich

#capacity #destructiveness #human #human beings #liberation

Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive. ↗

— Theodore Roosevelt

#equally #liberty #order #without