desires

Just as I support my life, neither by robbery nor alms, but by my own effort, so I do not seek to derive my happiness from the injury or the favour others of , but earn it by my own achievement. Just as I do not consider the pleasure of others as the goal of my life, so I do not consider my pleasure as the goal of the lives of others. Just as there are no contradictions in my values and no conflicts among my desires - so there are no victims and no conflicts of interest among rational men, men who do not desire the unearned and do not view one another with a cannibal's lust, men who neither make sacrifice nor accept them.

If you want to know the one reason that's taking me back, I'll tell you: I cannot bring myself to abandon to destruction all the greatness of the world, all that which was mine and yours, which was made by us and is still ours by right - because I cannot believe that men refuse to see, that they can remain blind and deaf to us forever, when the truth is ours and their lives depend on accepting it. . . . So long as men desire to live, I cannot lose my battle.

What did they seek from him? What were they after? He had never asked anything of them; it was they who wished to hold him, they who pressed a claim on him - and they seemed to have the form of affection, but it was a form which he found harder to endure than any sort of hatred. He despised causeless affection, just as he despised unearned wealth. They professed to love him for some unknown reason and they ignored all the things for which he could wish to be loved. He wondered what response they could hope to obtain from him in such manner - if his response was what they wanted. And it was, he thought; else why those constant complaints, those unceasing accusations about his indifference? Why that chronic air of suspicion, as if they were waiting to be hurt? He had never had a desire to hurt them, but he had always felt their defensive, reproachful expectation; they seemed wounded by anything he said, it was not a matter of his words or actions, it was almost . . . almost as if they were wounded by the mere fact of his being. Don't start imagining the insane - he told himself severely, struggling to face the riddle with the strictest of his ruthless sense of justice. He could not condemn them without understanding; and he could not understand.

Competition is a by-product of productive work, not its goal. A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

I am speaking to those among you who have retained some sovereign shred of their soul, unsold and unstamped: '- to the order of others'. If, in the chaos of the motives that have made you listen to the radio tonight, there was an honest, rational desire to learn what is wrong with the world, you are the man whom I wished to address. By the rules and terms of my code, one owes a rational statement to those whom it does concern and who are making an effort to know. Those who are making an effort to fail to understand me, are not a concern of mine.

The real gentleman is one who is gentle in everything, at least in everything that depends on himself - in carriage, temper, constructions, aims, desires. He is mild, calm, quiet, even temperate - not hasty in judgment, not exorbitant in ambition, not overbearing, not proud, not rapacious, not oppressive.

Life without credit would be horrid. Life with too much credit is worse than horrid - its a nightmare. Credit always costs. Whenever you say "charge it!" You are paying something more, in one way or another, than you would pay for the same item or service in cash. There is a plus to credit if one can use it wisely. For a home, for an automobile, for schooling, etc. But take care - don't abuse it. Stay well below "your desires." And pay off as quickly as you can. Take care of what you have and have as little as you really need. Buy "used" when practical. Make do with what you have until you can pay cash for consumable items.

It is my solemn witness that God lives, and that Jesus is the Christ. He lives and loves us and desires our happiness always. He died for us, not because he had to, but because he wanted to. He would die again, if it would help us. Through Christ and the Father, a plan was laid out which gave purpose and promise to mortal life, even though Satan would declare it meaningless and futile.

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: Chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.