quotations about desire
Human nature, at its best, had always been based on a deep heroic restlessness, on wanting something--something else, something more, whether it be true love or a glimpse just beyond the horizon. It was the promise of happiness, not the attainment of it, that had driven the entire engine, the folly and glory of who we are.
WILL FERGUSON
Happiness
Things desired are oftentimes of less value than our present possessions.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
By the destruction of his Cravings,
This monk hath extinguished Hunger, and hath attained Nirvana.
GAUTAMA BUDDHA
Iti-Vuttaka
People who constantly find new disguises for their desires can easily lie to themselves.
HANS-ULRICH RIEKER
The Secret of Meditation
The first and most practical step in getting what one wants in this world is wanting it. One would think that the next step would be expressing what one wants. But it almost never is. It generally consists in wanting it still harder.
GERALD STANLEY LEE
Crowds
The central fire is desire, and all the powers of our being are given us to see, to fight for, and to win the object of our desire. Quench that fire and man turns to ashes.
BASIL W. MATURIN
Laws of the Spiritual Life
The desire of the righteous ends only in good, but the hope of the wicked in wrath.
KING SOLOMON
Proverbs 11:23
Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.
WILLIAM BLAKE
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Men will gamble and plot and fight and fall, all for the winning of a trophy. A woman's heart, a piece of land, a kingdom, a lordship, a contract, a ship, an egg -- it hardly matters the which or the what, as soon as it is seen to be desired by one, another will make a prize of it.
JEANETTE WINTERSON
The Stone Gods
We should not desire the impossible.
LEONARDO DA VINCI
Thoughts on Art and Life
We abandon the most important journey of our lives when we abandon desire. We leave our hearts by the side of the road and head off in the direction of fitting in, getting by, being productive, what have you. Whatever we might gain--money, position, the approval of others, or just absence of the discontent itself--it's not worth it.
JOHN ELDREDGE
Desire
'Tis much easier to suppress a first desire, than to satisfy all those that follow it.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
To the soul's desires
The body listens
What the flesh requires
Keeps the heart imprisoned
DEPECHE MODE
"When the Body Speaks"
If men could regard the events of their lives with more open minds, they would frequently discover that they did not really desire the things they failed to obtain.
ANDRÉ MAUROIS
The Art of Living
Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires seems true; everything that is not puts us in a rage.
ANDRÉ MAUROIS
An Art of Living
As all-consuming as a young girl's fancies were ... a woman's desires could be twice as dangerous.
TERESA MEDEIROS
The Vampire Who Loved Me
What desire can be contrary to nature, since it was given to man by nature itself?
MICHEL FOUCAULT
Madness & Civilization
Man is the only animal whose desires increase as they are fed; the only animal that is never satisfied.
HENRY GEORGE
Progress and Poverty
Passing into higher forms of desire, that which slumbered in the plant, and fitfully stirred in the beast, awakes in the man.
HENRY GEORGE
Progress and Poverty
To bliss unknown by lofty soul aspires,
My lot unequal to my vast desires.
JOHN ARBUTHNOT
"Know Yourself", A Supplement to the Miscellaneous Works of the Late Dr. Arbuthnot