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Unless you get up an interest in a system of activities you can accomplish nothing in it. Extraneous motives may bring you to the door of a system of activities, but, once inside, you must drop everything extraneous.

— Robert S. Woodworth Dynamic Psychology (1918)

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More quotes by Robert S. Woodworth

As a general proposition, we may say that the drive that carries forward any activity, when it is running freely and effectively, is inherent in that activity. It is only when an activity is running by its own drive that it can run thus freely and effectively; for as long as it is being driven by some extrinsic motive, it is subject to the distraction of that motive.

Dynamic Psychology (1918)

We all know this type of behavior, where the interest of the performer is in himself and not in the work. One who has thoroughly prepared for a public performance of some sort, may break down in the performance because of inability to get away from the desire to do his best in the presence of all these spectators, this self-consciousness making impossible a direct application of his energies to the work in hand.

Dynamic Psychology (1918)

Often voluntary effort is needed in order to get a task started, to overcome repugnance, inertia, and distracting influences. The extraneous motive brings the horse to the water, but real drinking does not occur except from thirst, that is to say, from a desire for the particular results obtained by the activity in progress.

Dynamic Psychology (1918)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robert S. Woodworth (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.