#excess

I have heard that, with some persons, temperance – that is, moderation – is almost impossible; and if abstinence be an evil (which some have doubted), no one will deny that excess is a greater. Some parents have entirely prohibited their children from tasting intoxicating liquors; but a parent’s authority cannot last for ever; children are naturally prone to hanker after forbidden things; and a child, in such a case, would be likely to have a strong curiosity to taste, and try the effect of what has been so lauded and enjoyed by others, so strictly forbidden to himself – which curiosity would generally be gratified on the first convenient opportunity; and the restraint once broken, serious consequences might ensue. ↗

— Anne Brontë

#children #control #evil #excess #moderation

The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall. ↗

— Francis Bacon

#caused #desire #excessive #fall #knowledge

Confronted with the impossibility of remaining faithful to one's beliefs, and the equal impossibility of becoming free of them, one can be driven to the most inhuman excesses. ↗

— James Baldwin

#beliefs #confronted #driven #equal #excesses

Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps. ↗

— William Blake

#excessive #joy #laughs #sorrow #weeps

One of our theories is that one can offset this excessive compulsion toward the spectacular with a return to simplicity. ↗

— Rem Koolhaas

#excessive #offset #our #return #simplicity

This desire for equity must not lead to an excess of welfare, where nobody is responsible for anything. ↗

— Jacques Delors

#desire #equity #excess #lead #must

Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all. ↗

— John W. Gardner

#conviction #diagnosis #excessively #extremism #identifiable

I was raised in a solidly upper-middle class family who had really strong values and excess was not one of the things that my family put up with. And there's something wildy decadent about the young-star lifestyle, and I just don't really see the point. ↗

— Anne Hathaway

#class #class family #decadent #excess #family

Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity, it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance. ↗

— John Keats

#appear #excess #fine #highest #his

Rock and Roll has certainly tried to take its toll on me. I'd rather not talk about my past excesses here, although some hardcore rockers might argue that those excesses were responsible for some great records, but I know which side I came out on. ↗

— Tony Visconti

#although #argue #came #certainly #excesses