
As quoted in Social Networking for Authors: Untapped Possibilities for Wealth (2009) by Michael Volkin, p. 60
2000s, 2009
Often abbreviated to: Nothing great in the World has been accomplished without passion.
Variant translation: We may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without enthusiasm.
Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1832), Volume 1
Variant: We may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.
Context: We assert then that nothing has been accomplished without interest on the part of the actors; and — if interest be called passion, inasmuch as the whole individuality, to the neglect of all other actual or possible interests and claims, is devoted to an object with every fibre of volition, concentrating all its desires and powers upon it — we may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the World has been accomplished without passion.
As quoted in Social Networking for Authors: Untapped Possibilities for Wealth (2009) by Michael Volkin, p. 60
2000s, 2009
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
Variant: It is only by prudence, wisdom, and dexterity, that great ends are attained and obstacles overcome. Without these qualities nothing succeeds.
“His great passion in the world ought to be a passion for the liberation of men.”
The Ethics of Freedom (1973 - 1974)
Context: It seems to me that the free man, i. e., the man freed in Christ, ought to take parts in all movements that aim at human freedom. He obviously ought to oppose all dictatorship and oppression and all the fatalities which crush man. The Christian cannot bear it that others should be slaves. His great passion in the world ought to be a passion for the liberation of men.
p. 398
“Nothing can be accomplished without solitude; I have made a kind of solitude for myself.”
Quote in "Picasso", Hans L. C. Jaffe, Thames and Hudson Ltd
Attributed from posthumous publications
“Passion about nothing is like pouring gasoline into a car without wheels.”
Blue Like Jazz (2003, Nelson Books)
“All passion is lost now. The world is mediocre, limp, without force.”
Source: The Secret Agent (1907), Ch. 13
Context: All passion is lost now. The world is mediocre, limp, without force. And madness and despair are a force. And force is a crime in the eyes of the fools, the weak and the silly who rule the roost. You are mediocre. Verloc, whose affair the police has managed to smother so nicely, was mediocre. And the police murdered him. He was mediocre. Everybody is mediocre. Madness and despair! Give me that for a lever, and I'll move the world. Ossipon, you have my cordial scorn. You are incapable of conceiving even what the fat-fed citizen would call a crime. You have no force.
“Nothing great is done without great men, and they are great because they wanted it.”
On ne fait rien de grand sans de grands hommes, et ceux-ci le sont pour l'avoir voulu.
in Vers l’armée de métier.
Writings