„I can't help it, the idea of the infinite torments me.“

„John, forgive me… for what I can't help doing.“

—  Agatha Christie English mystery and detective writer 1890 - 1976

Henrietta Savernake
The Hollow (1946)

„I can't help it if I'm lucky.“

—  Bob Dylan American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist 1941

Song lyrics, Blood on the Tracks (1975), Idiot Wind

„In me the need to talk is a primary impulse, and I can't help saying right off what comes to my tongue.“

—  Miguel de Cervantes Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright 1547 - 1616

Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Unplaced as yet by chapter

„If she walks by, the men folks get engrossed,
She can't help it, the girl can't help it,
If she winks an eye, the bread slice turn to toast,
She can't help it, the girl can't help it,
If she got a lot, of what they call the most,
She can't help it, the girl can't help it.“

—  Bobby Troup American actor and musician 1918 - 1999

The Girl Can't Help It, first sung by Little Richard
Song lyrics

„I am for people. I can't help it.“

—  Charlie Chaplin British comic actor and filmmaker 1889 - 1977

As quoted in The Observer [London] (28 September, 1952)

„I went there to try to get my head around this idea, this idea that the problem in the universe lives within me. I can't think of anything more progressive than the embrace of this fundamental idea.“

—  Donald Miller, libro Blue Like Jazz: nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality

Blue Like Jazz (2003, Nelson Books)

„I've waited for a thousand years / For you to come and blow me out my mind
The world around us makes me feel so small
If you can't hear me call / Then I can't say, Lyla / Heaven help you catch me if I fall“

—  Noel Gallagher British musician 1967

Lyla
Don't Believe the Truth (2005)

„I can't help it. I was born a miscarriage. I had so many insults I died. I was born dead. I can't help it…. I'm tired.“

—  Ken Kesey, libro One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Origine: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962), Ch. 5

„Cause I can't help it if you look like an angel;
Can't help it if I wanna kiss you in the rain, so…
Come feel this magic I've been feelin' since I met you,
Can't help it if there's no one else.“

—  Taylor Swift American singer-songwriter 1989

Hey Stephen.
Song lyrics, Fearless (2008)

„I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time- waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God- it changes me.“

—  William Nicholson, film Shadowlands

Origine: Shadowlands

„I can't do it, I can't do it. I simply can't help turning a deaf ear to it and banging my head against the wall - yes - and all for an art that escapes me and will never know all the trouble I have taken on its behalf.“

—  Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec French painter 1864 - 1901

Origine: 1879-1884, T-Lautrec, by Henri Perruchot, p. 80 - c. 1882-1883

„and i can't stand the idea of being alone.
i can't bear the thought of being free.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, libro Survivor

Origine: Survivor

„We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.“

—  Elie Wiesel writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor 1928 - 2016

„The idea of God is a form of the idea of the Infinite. As long as the mystery of the infinite weighs on human thought, temples will be erected for the worship of the Infinite, whether God is called Brahma, Allah, Jehovah, or Jesus; and on the pavement of these temples, men will be seen kneeling, prostrated, annihilated by the thought of the Infinite.“

—  Louis Pasteur French chemist and microbiologist 1822 - 1895

As quoted by Sir William Osler in his introduction to The Life of Pasteur (1907) by Rene Vallery-Radot, as translated by R .L. Devonshire (1923)
Contesto: He who proclaims the existence of the Infinite, and none can avoid it — accumulates in that affirmation more of the supernatural than is to be found in all the miracles of all the religions; for the notion of the Infinite presents that double character that forces itself upon us and yet is incomprehensible. When this notion seizes upon our understanding we can but kneel... I see everywhere the inevitable expression of the Infinite in the world; through it the supernatural is at the bottom of every heart. The idea of God is a form of the idea of the Infinite. As long as the mystery of the infinite weighs on human thought, temples will be erected for the worship of the Infinite, whether God is called Brahma, Allah, Jehovah, or Jesus; and on the pavement of these temples, men will be seen kneeling, prostrated, annihilated by the thought of the Infinite.

„I can't help feeling that there is no beauty without hope, struggle, and conquest.“

—  Luis Buñuel film director 1900 - 1983

Origine: My Last Sigh

„A person can't help their birth.“

—  William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair

Origine: Vanity Fair

„The heart's in it then, spinning dreams, and torment is on the way. The heart makes dreams seem like ideas.“

—  Daniel Woodrell Novelist 1953

Origine: Winter's Bone

„I think a curse should rest on me — because I love this war. I know it's smashing and shattering the lives of thousands every moment — and yet — I can't help it — I enjoy every second of it.“

—  Winston S. Churchill Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1874 - 1965

A letter to a friend (1916).
Early career years (1898–1929)

„My friends are much more dangerous than my enemies. These latter – with infinite subtlety – spin webs to keep me out of places where I hate to go, – and tell stories of me to people whom it would be vanity and vexation to meet; – and they help me so much by their unconscious aid that I almost love them.“

—  Lafcadio Hearn writer 1850 - 1904

Letter to Ernest Fenollosa, December 1898, cited from Elizabeth Bisland (ed.) Life and Letters (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1923) vol. 3, p. 147.