Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Pierre Corneille - Casimir Comte de Montrond - Thomas Hardy - John Maynard Keynes -
You see, gentlemen, reason is an excellent thing, there’s no disputing that, but reason is nothing but reason and satisfies only the rational side of man’s nature, while will is a manifestation of the whole life, that is, of the whole human life including reason and all the impulses. And although our life, in this manifestation of it, is often worthless, yet it is life and not simply extracting square roots. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
A first impulse was never a crime. Pierre Corneille, Horace, 1640
Have no truck with first impulses for they are always generous ones. Casimir Comte de Montrond
Our impulses are too strong for our judgement sometimes. Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles
We should not conclude from this that everything depends on waves of irrational psychology. On the contrary, the state of long-term expectation is often steady, and, even when it is not, the other factors exert their compensating effects. We are merely reminding ourselves that human decisions affecting the future, whether personal or political or economic, cannot depend on strict mathematical expectation, since the basis for making such calculations does not exist; and that it is our innate urge to activity which makes the wheels go round, our rational selves choosing between the alternatives as best we are able, calculating where we can, but often falling back for our motive on whim or sentiment or chance. John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money