“We don't really want to get what we think that we want. I am married to a wife and relationship with her are cold and I have a mistress. And all the time I dream oh my god if my wife were to disappear - I'm not a murderer but let us say- that it will open up a new life with the mistress.Then, for some reason, the wife goes away, you lose the mistress. You thought this is all I want, when you have it there, you turn out it was a much more complex situation. It was not to live with the mistress, but to keep her as a distance as on object of desire about which you dream. This is not an excessive example, I claim this is how things function. We don't really want what we think we desire” PeoplePhilosophyDesireMarriage Author:Slavoj Žižek
“desire's raison d'être is not to realize its goal, to find full satisfaction, but to reproduce itself as desire” PhilosophyDesire Author:Slavoj Žižek
“The opposition between false limitless desires which only bring suffering and the authentic spiritual desire for well-being thus appears problematic: sensual desires are in themselves moderate, constrained to their direct goals; they become infinite and self-destructive only when they are infected by a spiritual dimension. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling knew that spirituality is self-destructive in its longing for infinity, which is why evil is much more spiritual than our sensual reality. In other words, the root of evil is not our egotism but, on the contrary, a perverted self-destructed spirituality which can prompt unnecessary personal self-sacrifice.” PhilosophyDesireSpiritualityPoliticsSelf HelpZizekOn Progress Book:Against Progress Source: Against Progress
“While just looking, we are always hunting among objects, looking for what we desire or fear, endeavoring to recognize some pattern; on the other hand, objects themselves always "stare back," vie for our attention, throw at us their lures and endeavor to entrap us.” HandsDesireAttentionObjectsPatternsStaringEndeavorHuntingLure Book:Enjoy Your Symptom!: Jacques Lacan in Hollywood and Out Source: Enjoy Your Symptom!: Jacques Lacan in Hollywood and Out
“What interests me is the following paradox: of how, precisely in our liberal societies, where no one can even imagine a transcendental cause for which to die, we are allowed to adopt a hedonistic, utilitarian, or even more spiritually egotistical stance - like, the goal of my life is the realization of all my potential, fulfillment of my innermost desires, whatever you want.” WantLife IsDesireDiesCausesGoalInterestImagineFollowingRealizationFulfillmentParadoxStanceTranscendentalEgotisticalUtilitarianHedonistic Author:Slavoj Žižek
“The problem for us is not are our desires satisfied or not. The problem is how do we know what we desire.” KnowsProblemDesireSatisfied Author:Slavoj Žižek