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William Braxton Irvine Quotes

By contemplating the impermanence of everything in the world, we are forced to recognize that every time we do something could be the last time we do it, and this recognition can invest the things we do with a

By contemplating the impermanence of everything in the world, we are forced to recognize that every time we do something could be the last time we do it, and this recognition can invest the things we do with a significance and intensity that would otherwise be absent. We will no longer sleepwalk through our life.

William Braxton Irvine
Life, Time, Lasts

At spare moments in the day, make it a point to contemplate the loss of whatever you value in life. Engaging in such contemplation can produce a dramatic transformation in your outlook on life. It can make you realize, if only for a time, how lucky you are - how much you have to be thankful for, almost regardless of your circumstances.

William Braxton Irvine
Gratitude, Loss, Being Thankful
"A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy". Book by William Braxton Irvine, October 7, 2008.

You are currently experiencing desire; otherwise, you wouldn't be reading these words. Even if you are reading them at the behest of someone else, you are motivated by your desire to please that person. And if you stop reading, you will not do so because you have stopped desiring but because your desires have changed.

William Braxton Irvine
Reading, Desire, Motivated
William Braxton Irvine (2007). “On Desire: Why We Want what We Want”, p.1, Oxford University Press

When it comes to desiring, we are all experts. If there were an Olympics of desiring, we would all make the team.

William Braxton Irvine
Team, Experts, Olympics
William Braxton Irvine (2007). “On Desire: Why We Want what We Want”, p.1, Oxford University Press

Desire animates the world. It is present in the baby crying for milk, the girl struggling to solve a math problem, the woman running to meet her lover and later deciding to have children, and the old woman, hunched over her walker, moving down the hall of the nursing home at a glacial pace to pick up her mail. Banish desire from the world, and you get a world of frozen beings who have no reason to live and no reason to die.

William Braxton Irvine
Girl, Running, Baby
William Braxton Irvine (2007). “On Desire: Why We Want what We Want”, p.2, Oxford University Press

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