Every man hath a general desire of his own happiness; and likewise a variety of particular affections, passions, and appetites to particular external objects.
Joseph Butler

External nature is only internal nature writ large.
Swami Vivekananda

Felicity, the companion of content, is rather found in our own breasts than in the enjoyment of external things; and I firmly believe it requires but a little philosophy to make a man happy in whatever state he is.
Daniel Boone

Freedom is an internal achievement rather than an external adjustment.
Powell Clayton

From the perspective of mere representation, the external world always remains only a phenomenon.
Wilhelm Dilthey

Genuine beginnings begin within us, even when they are brought to our attention by external opportunities.
William Throsby Bridges

Given that external reality is a fiction, the writer's role is almost superfluous. He does not need to invent the fiction because it is already there.
J. G. Ballard

God is not external to anyone, but is present with all things, though they are ignorant that he is so.
Plotinus

God, our genes, our environment, or some stupid programmer keying in code at an ancient terminal - there's no way free will can ever exist if we as individuals are the result of some external cause.
Orson Scott Card

Happiness doesn't depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude.
Dale Carnegie

However, no two people see the external world in exactly the same way. To every separate person a thing is what he thinks it is - in other words, not a thing, but a think.
Penelope Fitzgerald

I learned early about the misery and dangers of life, and about the afterlife, about the external punishment which awaited the children of sin in Hell.
Edvard Munch

I look at modern life and I see people not taking responsibility for their lives. The temptation to blame, to find external causes to one's own issues is something that is particularly modern. I know that personally I find that sense of responsibility interesting.
Edward Zwick

I never blamed Pinochet, or my torturers, or external circumstances.
Fernando Flores

I paint to rest from the phenomena of the external world-to pronounce and to make notations of its essences with which to verify the inner eye.
Morris Graves

I see little alteration at Lyons since I formerly passed through it. Its manufactories are, nevertheless, flourishing, though less improvement than could be expected is visible in the external aspect of the place.
Marguerite Gardiner

I see plainly how external images influence the image that I call my body: they transmit movement to it.
Henri Bergson

I shot a lot of close-ups on this movie 'cause there's like a dual mystery, she's searching through her haunted past to find some truth and she's also following an external mystery where she comes to think she might be the killer.
Philip Kaufman

I take the walk to be the externalization of an interior seeking so that the analogy is first of all between the external and the internal.
A. R. Ammons

I think we are bound to, and by, nature. We may want to deny this connection and try to believe we control the external world, but every time there's a snowstorm or drought, we know our fate is tied to the world around us.
Alice Hoffman