Quotes
Quotes about Desire
By annihilating the desires, you annihilate the mind. Every man without passions has within him no principle of action, nor motive to act.
The desire to belong is partly a desire to lose oneself.
Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are.
The readiness to praise others indicates a desire for excellence and perhaps an ability to realize it.
To believe that if we could but have this or that we would be happy is to suppress the realization that the cause of our unhappiness is in our inadequate and blemished selves. Excessive desire is thus a means of suppressing our sense of worthlessness.
The chief burden of the frustrated is the consciousness of a blemished, ineffectual self, and their chief desire is to slough off the unwanted self and begin a new life. They try to realize this desire either by finding a new identity or by blurring and camouflaging their individual distinctness; and both these ends are reached by imitation.
The less satisfaction we derive from being ourselves, the greater is our desire to be like others.
You can tell the man who rings true from the man who rings false, not by his deeds alone, but also his desires.
Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.
It is a good part of sagacity to have known the foolish desires of the crowd and their unreasonable notions. [Lat., Bona prudentiae pars est nosse stultas vulgi cupiditates, et absurdas opiniones.]
If the bookseller happens to desire a privilege for his merchandise, whether he is selling Rabelais or the Fathers of the Church, the magistrate grants the privilege without answering for the contents of the book. - Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire),
Books have always a secret influence on the understanding; we cannot at pleasure obliterate ideas: he that reads books of science, though without any desire fixed of improvement, will grow more knowing; he that entertains himself with moral or religious treatises, will imperceptibly advance in goodness; the ideas which are often offered to the mind, will at last find a lucky moment when it is disposed to receive them.
Let reason govern desire.
The consuming desire of most human beings is deliberately to plant their whole life in the hands of some other person. I would describe this method of searching for happiness as immature. Development of character consists solely in moving toward self-sufficiency.
In man's life, the absence of an essential component usually leads to the adoption of a substitute. The substitute is usually embraced with vehemence and extremism, for we have to convince ourselves that what we took as second choice is the best there ever was. Thus blind faith is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves; insatiable desire a substitute for hope; accumulation a substitute for growth; fervent hustling a substitute for purposeful action; and pride a substitute for an unattainable self-respect.
One sole desire, one passion now remains To keep life's fever still within his veins, Vengeance! dire vengeance on the wretch who cast O'er him and all he lov'd that ruinous blast.
Now when the primrose makes a splendid show, And lilies face the March-winds in full blow, And humbler growths as moved with one desire Put on, to welcome spring, their best attire, Poor Robin is yet flowerless; but how gay With his red stalks upon this sunny day!
Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.
There is one thing even more vital to science than intelligent methods; and that is, the sincere desire to find out the truth, whatever it may be.
When we desire to confine our words, we commonly say they are spoken under the rose. - Sir Thomas Browne,
Calm self-confidence is as far from conceit as the desire to earn a decent living is remote from greed.
A sentimentalist is simply one who desires to have the luxury of an emotion without paying for it.
The worthy gentleman [Mr. Coombe], who has been snatched from us at the moment of the election, and in the middle of the contest, while his desires were as warm, and his hopes as eager as ours, has feelingly told us, what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue.
Your heart's desires be with you! -As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.
Hereafter, in a better world than this, I shall desire more love and knowledge of you. -As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.
