The passionate attitude is less a response to stimuli from without than an emanation of an inner dissatisfaction.

From The Passionate State of Mind by Eric Hoffer.

There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmarks of a fugitive.

Passions usually have their roots in that which is blemished, crippled, incomplete and insecure within us. The passionate attitude is less a response to stimuli from without than an emanation of an inner dissatisfaction.

There are great tides of passion about obscure or ambiguous issues and a scarcity of dispassionate interest in the truth.