Quotes about drive
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“Adults follow paths. Children explore. Adults are content to walk the same way, hundreds of times, or thousands; perhaps it never occurs to adults to step off the paths, to creep beneath rhododendrons, to find the spaces between fences. I was a child, which meant that I knew a dozen different ways of getting out of our property and into the lane, ways that would not involve walking down our drive.”

Neil Gaiman book The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Source: The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013), Chapter 6 (p. 74)

Children, Way, Time

“Boys never see a conclusion; only on the edge of the grave can man conclude anything; but the first impulse given to the boy is apt to lead or drive him for the rest of his life into conclusion after conclusion that he never dreamed of reaching.”

Henry Adams (1838–1918) journalist, historian, academic, novelist

The Education of Henry Adams (1907)

Life, Dreams, Boy

“They determined, once for all, to make an end of the spirit of freedom and emancipation, and to drive back and repress for ever the upward tendency of mankind. To undo the labour of twenty generations; to kill in the nineteenth century, by strangulation... Luther, Descartes, and Voltaire, religious scrutiny, philosophical scrutiny, universal scrutiny; to crush throughout all Europe this immense vegetation of free thought, here a tender blade, there a sturdy oak; ...to resuscitate all they could of the Inquisition, and to stifle all they could of intelligence; to stultify youth, in other words to brutalize the future;... to say to nations: "Eat and think no more;"”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

Napoleon the Little (1852), Conclusion, Part Second, I
Napoleon the Little (1852)

Youth, Making love, Intelligence, Thinking

“Half a century ago in Holism and Evolution Jan Smuts tried to synthesize Darwin's evolutionary theory, Einstein's physics, and his own insights to account for the evolution of mind as well as matter. Wholeness, Smuts said, is a fundamental characteristic of the universe—the product of nature's drive to synthesize.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Six, Liberating Knowledge: News from the Frontiers of Science

Nature, Universe

“The only way out of our suffering is through it. From an ancient Sanskrit writing: Do not try to drive pain away by pretending that it is not real. If you seek serenity in oneness, pain will vanish of its own accord.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Three, Brains Changing, Minds Changing

Pain, Way, Suffering

“I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t blink. Couldn’t hear a thing, not them talking or the wind or the truck driving off or bees. Couldn’t scream out to Will to help me or to anyone else, all of them talking and going on as though I wasn’t even there.
And that was when I realized: This is what it’s like to be dead. No clouds or lights or bright tunnel, not even darkness: just the world turning and going on without you and you’ll never be part of it again.”

Elizabeth Hand book Wylding Hall

Source: Wylding Hall (2015), Chapter 5

World, Light, Bee, Help

“Histories based on biographies can present a one-dimensional image of the architects involved, often inflating what was a portion of their existence, interests or social and cultural significance, making architecture appear to be their driving force when in reality it may have been merely one of several interests.”

Dana Arnold (1961) Middlessex uni prof

Source: Reading Architectural History (2002), Ch. 2 : The authority of the author : Biography and the reconstruction of the canon

Making love, History, Reality, Appearance

“[B]iography is an essential part of human memory. We think about ourselves in terms of what we have done – our identity is constructed around our past. Are history and biography linked or just two parallel strands? Biographers and historians make choices about how to frame their subject, they draw together fragments to present a possible glimpse of the unattainable whole. An historian might have a thesis or method which drives his/her enquiry whereas a biographer has, perhaps, a particular view of an individual they wish to present. Neither presents the truth, only an interpretation.”

Dana Arnold (1961) Middlessex uni prof

Source: Reading Architectural History (2002), Ch. 2 : The authority of the author : Biography and the reconstruction of the canon

Truth, Making love, History, Thinking

“There’s a really interesting thing about despair, I think. It has a spark in it of deep motivation. I think despair can be described as looking at every possible scenario and seeing no hopeful one. But what that means is, if you can present someone in despair with one scenario that looks hopeful – that looks like a real possibility – then there’s this immense wealth of motivation to drive toward it, because despair is not a nice place to be.”

Shaun Chamberlin

Kosmos interview on grief, Dark Optimism, aliveness and activism (2014) http://www.darkoptimism.org/2014/12/21/dark-optimism-power-of-grief/#post-4075

Hope, Motivation, Thinking, Despair

“The main goal of this book is to reform thinking and writing about the barbarians in late antiquity by driving out the anachronistic terms "German" and "Germanic" and the baggage that goes with them.”

Walter Goffart (1934) American historian

Source: Quotaes, Barbarian Tides (2010), p. 6

Books, Thinking

“I never really see a book in the context of what went before because when I finish a book I try to press the delete button so that it’s wiped off the hard drive…”

Caryl Phillips (1958) Kittian-British writer

On pushing a book that he’s published out of his mind so that he may start a new one in “YORKSHIRE CALLING: AN INTERVIEW WITH CARYL PHILLIPS” https://www.publicbooks.org/yorkshire-calling-an-interviewwith-caryl-phillips/ in Public Books (2015 May 1)

Books

“Capitalism has three innate characteristics that drive us towards destruction… firstly, that it generates and relies upon perpetual growth... (Second:)…the idea that our right to own natural wealth equates to the amount of money that we’ve got in the bank or we can borrow. So, you can take as much natural wealth away from other people as you like.... The third characteristic is the one that really ensures that people go along with capitalism, the idea that everyone can pursue — and can expect to find — private luxury.”

George Monbiot (1963) English writer and political activist

Quoted by Lee Camp, Pandemic is Not Just a Crisis, It’s Also a Gift, Consortium News https://consortiumnews.com/2020/04/23/lee-camp-pandemic-is-not-just-a-crisis-its-also-a-gift/, (23 April 2020)

Money, People, Idea, Nature

“Unlike novels or movies, video games are an interactive medium where the player's actions drive the story forward, so I had actually wanted to allow players to manipulate the evidence themeselves earlier on in the series.”

Shu Takumi (1971) video game developer

Game

“If you don’t let current conditions drive your decisions, you can give your investment the time it needs to grow.”

Bhanu Choudhrie (1978)

"CEO Spotlight: Bhanu Choudhrie, Founder & Director of Alpha Aviation Group" https://ceoworld.biz/2020/03/11/ceo-spotlight-bhanu-choudhrie-founder-director-of-alpha-aviation-group/, CEOWORLD magazine (March 2020)

Decision, Time

“Don't drink and drive. That's what they say. They also say, friends don't let friends drive drunk.”

Ron White (1956) American comedian

Well, which one is it? Somebody's gotta drive.
Source: If You Quit Listening, I'll Shut Up (2018 Netflix special)

Drink

“You can't drive a flock of sheep to market in a dead straight line, but there are ways of getting 'em there.”

John Wyndham book The Day of the Triffids

The Day of the Triffids (1951), ch 10 - p.179

Way, Dead

“Attacking the new slave economy as it does, the animal liberation movement is a significant threat to global capital. Animal liberation challenges large sectors of the capitalist economy by assailing corporate agriculture and pharmaceutical giants and their suppliers. Far from being irrelevant to social movements, animal rights can form the basis for a broad coalition of progressive social groups and drive changes that strike at the heart of capitalist exploitation of animals, people, and the earth.”

Steven Best (1955) American activist

Source: The Politics of Total Liberation: Revolution for the 21st Century (2014), Chapter 4 "Rethinking Revolution: Veganism, Animal Liberation, Ecology, and the Left" (p. 103)

People, Change, Heart, Animals

“The natural effect of unfettered market competition is socialism. For a short time the innovator receives a large profit, as a reward for being first to the market. Then, as competitors adopt the innovation, competition drives these profits down to zero and the price gravitates toward the new, lower cost of production made possible by this innovation (that price including, of course, the cost of the producer’s maintenance and the amortization of her capital outlays). So in a free market, the cost savings in labor required to produce any given commodity would quickly be socialized in the form of reduced labor cost to purchase it.”

Kevin Carson (1963) American academic

"Who Owns the Benefit? The Free Market as Full Communism" https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/kevin-carson-who-owns-the-benefit-the-free-market-as-full-communism (2012)

Nature, Time

“I am done with the clichéd heroine roles. I can’t go to work without a challenge. I want to do films that drive me, films in which I am a part of the main plot.”

Samantha Akkineni (1987) Indian actress

"Samantha: I am done with clichéd heroine roles" https://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/Samantha-I-am-done-with-clich%C3%A9d-heroine-roles/article14378258.ece. The Hindu. (May 31, 2016).

Parting

“Mars has always captured the human imagination for decades and decades, it’s always been the planet that everyone’s looking toward. Knowing it’s out there, it’s what drives everything that we do.”

Jessica Meir (1977) Swedish-American marine biologist and astronaut

Source: As quoted in [Kaplan, Sarah, Journey to Mars: Meet NASA astronaut candidate Jessica Meir, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/journey-to-mars-jessica-meir/2015/04/28/29d206a0-b11b-11e4-886b-c22184f27c35_story.html?utm_term=.573b6aa772fe, 26 April 2019, The Washington Post, April 28, 2015]

Imagination

“We need to make decisions that make us less consumptive and reduce our reliance on nitrogen. It's like a carbon footprint. But you can reduce your nitrogen footprint. I do it by not eating much meat -- I still like a little every now and then -- not using corn oil, driving a car that I can put nonethanol gas in and get better gas mileage. Just things like that that can make a difference. So I'm challenging, not just you, but I challenge a lot of people, especially in the Midwest -- think about how you're treating your land and how you can make a difference. So my steps are very small steps. To change the type of agriculture in the US is going to be many big steps. And it's going to take political and social will for that to happen. But we can do it. I strongly believe we can translate the science, bridge it to policy and make a difference in our environment. We all want a clean environment.”

Nancy Rabalais Marine biologist

Source: The "dead zone" of the Gulf of Mexico https://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_rabalais_the_dead_zone_of_the_gulf_of_mexico (November 2017)

People, Making love, Cars, Thinking

“The questions that keep us up at night are the questions which drive us during the day.”

Isaac Mashman (2000) businessman, speaker

Question, Night

“Another force driving progressive evolution is the so-called "arms-race."”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

Prey animals evolve faster running speeds because predators do. Consequently predators have to evolve even faster running speeds, and so on, in an escalating spiral. Such arms races probably account for the spectacularly advanced engineering of eyes, ears, brains, bat "radar" and all the other high-tech weaponry that animals display.
The Evolutionary Future of Man (1993)

“Hang on a second—you already have my old laptop. Why do you want my new drives so badly?”

Douglas Coupland book JPod

"Because my contract says I have to write a book, and it's much easier just to steal your life than to make something up."
JPod (2006)

“A lot of journalists give me a hard time about how I look, but I've never met a journalist I'd rather look like. And it's not just a performance thing. I don't drive around the countryside in full makeup because it would scare the animals, but I've been wearing makeup since I was a teenager, after I saw Bowie wearing it on Top of the Pops. I immediately borrowed someone's older sister's makeup and put it on. I loved how odd it made me look, and the fact that it upset people. You put on eyeliner and people start screaming at you. How strange, and how marvellous.”

Robert Smith (musician) (1959) English singer, songwriter and musician

Quoted in Grant Smithies, "Close encounter with Robert Smith" https://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/features/profiles/earlier-profiles-26519/51564/The-Cures-Robert-Smith, Sunday Star-Times (July 29, 2007)

Love, People, Making love, Sister

“There's no pulling back on the drive to be competitive and get back to the World Series.”

Larry Baer (1957) MLB Executive

Giants CEO Larry Baer believes prospects' development is key to future https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/giants/giants-ceo-larry-baer-believes-prospects-development-key-future, NBC Sports (February 1, 2021)

World

“It doesn’t matter if radio thinks it’s a dying genre, or if there are people who thinks it sounds like ‘this or this or that’. If you write a good song, and it’s pop-punk, people will like it; because pop-punk doesn’t really mean a whole lot: it just means that it’s got that pop catchiness to it, but it’s got that punk energy and speed, and stuff that makes you want to jump up and down or drive a car real fast; and that’s something that will never get old.”

Pierre Bouvier (1979) Canadian musician

Simple Plan: The 13th Floor Interview https://www.13thfloor.co.nz/simple-plan-the-13th-floor-interview/ (February 7, 2018)

People, Making love, Cars, Thinking

“Driving down child mortality in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was in no way a single project, but it can be seen as a unified human accomplishment—maybe even our greatest human achievement, at least for pediatricians and parents.”

Perri Klass (1958) American pediatrician and writer

[Introduction, A Good Time to Be Born: How Science and Public Health Gave Children a Future, https://books.google.com/books?id=fNjVDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=unified&f=false, 13 October 2020, W. W. Norton, 978-0-393-61000-0] (ebook)

Way, Parent

“If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.”

Pema Chödron (1936) American philosopher

People, Learning, Teachers, Heart

“We must build strength and maintain vision. That requires inexorable efforts for reform and integration. Reform is a driving force behind growth, and integration is a stepping-stone for a take-off.”

Roh Moo-hyun (1946–2009) 9th President of the Republic of Korea

Excerpts from inaugural address (25 February 2003)

Effort

“A car would not be allowed to drive without crash tests - so there should be an obligation to penetration testing for IT systems.”

Peter Wilfahrt (1986) German author and entrepreneur

9. Cyber-Security-Day, Alliance for Cyber-Security, 06-16-2015.] <br class="br">Source: 9. Cyber-Security-Day https://www.allianz-fuer-cybersicherheit.de/Webs/ACS/DE/Netzwerk-Formate/Veranstaltungen-und-Austausch/Cyber-Sicherheits-Tage/Archiv-der-Termine/Agenda/cst_programm9_160615.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=1 German Alliance for Cyber-Security. Retrieved on 08-16-2021.

Cars

“I think my drive to work has gone up a bit since I’ve gotten older. The more I work the happier I am. I’m also finding a lot more roles that are exciting and challenging for me on a more regular basis.”

Mary Elizabeth Winstead (1984) American actress and singer

"Mary Elizabeth Winstead: From Mercy Street to Cloverfield Land" in Interview Magazine (9 March 2006) https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/mary-elizabeth-winstead

Thinking

“Sometimes life drives you to a place… the road allows you to rediscover yourself.”

Chloé Zhao (1982) Chinese film director, screenwriter, and film producer

Life

“Observe well how the word ‘narcissism’ is often used into marriages. The victims are often those who have separated with their significant other, rather than being on good terms with them. Therefore, we must dig deeper to the core of the word and discover its true meaning. In return, we will get a glimpse of our mentality and the main attributes that drive us to label each other with that conflicted word.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Marriage

“Professional success requires ... drive, initiative, commitment, involvement, and -above all- enthusiasm.”

Tom Peters (1942) American writer on business management practices

21 June 2021
Tom Peters Daily, Weekly Quote

Success

“My hero is a person whose general interests and values really drives them well beyond job security or even popularity.”

Sheyene Gerardi Venezuelan actor and model

Personality

“Prior to studies of unusually intelligent people that showed them to be generally much better adapted and happier than others, the popular belief in the United States was that exceptional intelligence was often associated with exceptional ability to “drive yourself nuts.””

Robyn Dawes (1936–2010) American psychologist

Hence, people believed that genius and lunacy were intimately connected. Perhaps, nearly all of us “drive ourselves a little nuts” by virtue of creating stories that lead us to the illusion that we understand history, other people, causality, and life—when we don’t.
Source: Everyday Irrationality: How Pseudo-Scientists, Lunatics, and the Rest of Us Systematically Fail to Think Rationally (2001), Chapter 7, “Good Stories” (p. 125)

People, Intelligence, Study

“Last year, like many others, I too made the mistake of scoffing at this post-September 11th rhetoric, dismissing it as foolish and arrogant. But I’ve realized...It’s actually a canny recruitment drive for a misconceived, dangerous war.”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

Source: Articles, Come September (29 Sep 2002)

War

“The reform of training, personnel system, scientific research and the management system of colleges and departments will strengthen the endogenous driving force for the healthy development of universities.”

Liu Yandong (1945) Chinese politician

Source: "刘延东强调：加快建设中国特色现代大学制度" http://www.gov.cn/guowuyuan/2013-08/23/content_2589585.htm (23 August 2017)

Universe, Training

“Take it from me, underwater deep sea diver extraordinaire, driving with my Mom on the freeway is far more dangerous.”

Tania Raymonde (1988) American actress

Source: Interview: Tania Raymonde, Star Of Deep Blue Sea 3 https://thedailyjaws.com/blog/2020/7/7/interview-tania-raymonde-star-of-deep-blue-sea-3 (July 27, 2020)

Moms, Sea

“There has to be something that drives you. Find that thing that drives you and you'll be able to have longevity in it.”

Omotola Jalade Ekeinde (1978) Nigerian actress and singer

“It’s a sad fact of modern life that if you drive long enough, sooner or later you must leave London behind.”

Ben Aaronovitch book Moon Over Soho

Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 1, “Body and Soul” (p. 1)

Life, Sadness

“While some bishops may travel with someone to help with the driving, I go by myself. I prefer it that way. I like the solitude. I don't listen to music. I pray and say the Rosary, or think about things. It gives me a lot of time to myself. Not everyone would like it.”

Peter F. Christensen (1952) Catholic bishop

Source: 6 Bishops on Their Favorite Saints, Spirituality https://www.ncregister.com/blog/6-bishops-on-their-favorite-saints-spirituality (21 January 2020)

Music, Way, Travel, Thinking

“If we are to understand what is going on in Empedocles’s writings, we need to think about the philosophical motives that drive him, and we need to make use of the bits of text we already had before the papyrus turned up.”

Catherine Rowett (1956) Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia (born 1956)

Source: Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2004), Ch. 1 : Lost words, forgotten worlds

Motivation, Understanding, Thinking

“We can now understand fully how wrong it would be to look at transference in a totally derogatory way when it fulfills such vital drives toward human wholeness. Man needs to infuse his life with value so that he can pronounce it “good.””

Ernest Becker book The Denial of Death

The transference-object is then a natural fetishization for man’s highest yearnings and strivings. Again we see what a marvelous “talent” transference is. It is a form of creative fetishism, the establishment of a locus from which our lives can draw the powers they need and want. What is more wanted than immortality-power? How wonderful and how facile to be able to take our whole immortality-striving and make it part of a dialogue with a single human being. We don’t know, on this planet, what the universe wants from us or is prepared to give us. We don’t have an answer to the question that troubled Kant of what our duty is, what we should be doing on earth. We live in utter darkness about who we are and why we are here, yet we know it must have some meaning. What is more natural, then, than to take this unspeakable mystery and dispel it straightaway by addressing our performance of heroics to another human being, knowing thus daily whether this performance is good enough to earn us eternity. If it is bad, we know that it is bad by his reactions and so are able instantly to change it.
Source: The Denial of Death (1973), The Spell Cast by Persons—The Nexus of Unfreedom

Life, Way, Understanding

“Ooh, baby, your love is so bad
You, baby, you're driving me mad
Ooh, baby, your kiss is so sweet
You, baby, knock me off my feet
Ooh, baby, I wish you were mine
Ooh, baby, we'd have a good time
Ooh, what can I do?”

Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) Irish singer-songwriter

"Ooh, Baby" (song) <br class="br">Gilbert O'Sullivan, "Ooh, Baby" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPsVmA742FE (song on YouTube) <br class="br">Song lyrics

Love, Kiss, Time, Baby

“It's time to turn this debate around, drive out politics of despair and offer a vision for Britain in Europe.”

John McDonnell (1951) British politician (born 1951)

Source: John McDonnell criticises EU vote campaign 'negativity' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36310486 BBC News (17 May 2016)

Time, Despair

“If you believe in the slippery slope here, it means that our entire society is perched on the slippery slope. It means that regulation has no value whatsoever, and that is not true.
Now, there are always consequences. We allow 16-year-olds to get driver's licenses, and a lot of them have accidents - but do we rescind the permission to drive a car at 16? No.”

Christopher Reeve (1952–2004) actor, director, producer, screenwriter

Source: "Testimony in favor of funding human cloning experiments" http://www.chrisreevehomepage.com/sp-testimony-bill1758.html [S. 1758 Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001] (Senate - March 5, 2002)

Cars

“The great driving force of the oligarchs is the belief that they are doing right.”

Jack London book The Iron Heel

Source: The Iron Heel (1907), Ch. XXI

“On top of the war talk, women were driving me crazy: the ones who said “no” and the ones who said “yes.””

Jack Cady book The Night We Buried Road Dog

It got downright mystifying just trying to figure out which was worse. At nineteen, it’s hard to know how to act.
Source: The Night We Buried Road Dog (1993), p. 463

Women, War