Evil is the moment when I lack the strength to be true to the Good that compels me.

Reading is not optional.

Compulsion is the death of friendship, joy.

It is wrong to ask for more than you give freely. In this way, we come to resemble what we hate.

I have never thought, for my part, that man's freedom consists in his being able to do whatever he wills, but that he should not, by any human power, be forced to do what is against his will.

Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. I suppose that it begins or does not begin in the cradle.

Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.