#possessed

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself. ↗

— Samuel Johnson

#before #believes #convinced #each #found

I can't tell you how many people have asked me to show them Stray Cat Strut and that little diminished run on the C. I guess my brain is wired backwards. I don't know what possessed me to do that, but I did. ↗

— Brian Setzer

#backwards #brain #cat #did #diminished

That so unlikely an outcome should accrue to a man possessed of such limited talent and so many flaws, and one lacking in a sense of ethics and decency was one of the bitter ironies of history. ↗

— William Thomas Green Morton

#decency #ethics #flaws #history #ironies

Shortly after this I was made a member of the boys' choir, it being found that I possessed a clear, strong soprano voice. I enjoyed the singing very much. ↗

— James Weldon Johnson

#being #choir #clear #enjoyed #found

Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed. ↗

— Joseph Addison

#agreeable #because #before #curiosity #everything

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of. ↗

— Joseph Addison

#eloquence #every #great #great talent #just

We have long possessed the art of war and the science of war, which have been evolved in the minutest detail. ↗

— Fredrik Bajer

#art of war #been #detail #evolved #long

No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary, whatever the punishment, once a specific crime has appeared for the first time, its reappearance is more likely than its initial emergence could ever have been. ↗

— Hannah Arendt

#been #commission #contrary #could #crime

The idea of winning a doctor's degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me. ↗

— Elizabeth Blackwell

#aspect #assumed #attraction #degree #doctor

I was possessed by London. ↗

— Manolo Blahnik

#london #possessed