#intention

You can pour holy oil and holy water on a thug until you have emptied buckets of both; but at the end he will be a consecrated thug, but a thug all the same unless interior intentions and a disciplined man are present. ↗

— William H. O'Connell

#buckets #consecrated #disciplined #emptied #end

Stories, as much as we like to talk about them, retrospectively, as emanations of theme or worldview or intention, occur primarily as technical objects when they're being written. Or at least they do for me. They're the result of thousands of decisions made at speed during revision. ↗

— George Saunders

#being #decisions #during #intention #least

There are a lot of movies I'd like to throw away. That's not to say that I went in with that attitude. Any film I ever started, I went in with all the hope and best intentions in the world, but some films just don't work. ↗

— Kiefer Sutherland

#attitude #away #best #best intentions #ever

A lie does not consist in the indirect position of words, but in the desire and intention, by false speaking, to deceive and injure your neighbour. ↗

— Jonathan Swift

#deceive #desire #does #false #indirect

I intentionally aided them by being there and blocking an avenue of escape for the victims. ↗

— Robert Iler

#avenue #being #being there #blocking #escape

So on May 1, 1987, at Gary's invitation, I agreed to see him one last time - to confront him face-to-face about his sincerity and with the intention of ending our brief relationship. ↗

— Donna Rice

#agreed #brief #confront #ending #face-to-face

I learned one thing in Watergate: I was well-intentioned but rationalized illegal behavior," he said. "You cannot live your life other than walking in the truth. Your means are as important as your ends. ↗

— Chuck Colson

#cannot #ends #i #illegal #important

Such a simple concept, yet so true: that which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves. ↗

— Garth Stein

#creators #destiny #failures #ignorance #intention

The trouble is, when you gift a girl with flowers your choice can be construed so many different ways. A man might give you a rose because he feels you are beautiful, or because he fancies their shade or shape or softness similar to your lips. Roses are expensive, and perhaps he wishes to show through a valuable gift that you are valuable to him. When a man gives you a rose what you see may not be what he intends. You may think he sees you as delicate or frail. Perhaps you dislike a suitor who considers you sweet and nothing else. Perhaps the stem is thorn, and you assume he thinks you likely to hurt a hand too quick to touch. But if he trims the thorns you might think he has no liking for a thing that can defend itself with sharpness. There's so many ways a thing can be interpreted. ↗

— Patrick Rothfuss

#interpretation #significance #the-ears-of-the-listener #beauty

You’re the director of your life, so you deserve to play the lead. ↗

— Sandra Saenz

#direct #direction #director #intention #lead