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Desire Quotes

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Desire Quotes

“People often say that I'm curious about too many things at once... But can you really forbid a man from harbouring a desire to know and embrace everything that surrounds him?”

People Knows Men Desire Embrace Curiosity Curious Surround

Author:Alexander von Humboldt

“Energy and curiosity are the lifeblood of universities; the desire to find out, to uncover, to dig deeper, to puzzle out obscurities, is the spirit of the university, and it is a channelling of that unresting curiosity that holds mankind together.”

Together Spirit Desire Energy Mankind Curiosity University Deeper Puzzles Obscurity Dig Deep

Book:The Cornish Trilogy

Source: The Cornish Trilogy

“Desire , to know why, and how, CURIOSITY; such as is in no living creature but Man ; so that Man is distinguished, not only by his Reason; but also by this singular Passion from other Animals ; in whom the appetite of food, and other pleasures of Sense, by predominance, take away the care of knowing causes; which is a Lust of the mind, that by a perseverance of delight in the continual and indefatigable generation of Knowledge, exceedeth the short vehemence of any carnal Pleasure.”

Knows Men Mind Reason Care Desire Passion Causes Pleasure Animal Knowing Generations Creatures Perseverance Curiosity Delight Lust Appetite Distinguished Living Creatures Vehemence

Book:Leviathan

Source: Leviathan

“Science is an intellectual journey, and to me, it's not the destination, it's the journeyto get there. It's a way of thinking and it's an intellectual curiosity, a desire to know how the world works, and to know what the fundamental principles of the world are, and to know our place in it. I think once we stop asking questions like "what is the age of the universe," or "how are the instructions of DNA carried out on a microscopic level," once we stop asking questions like that, we're dead.”

“I was born to be an explorer. There never was any decision to make. I coudn't be anything else and be happy,the desire to see new places, to discover new facts- the curiosity of life always has been a resistless driving force to me.”

Has Beens Facts Desire Force Born Decision Curiosity Driving Explorers Driving Force New Places

Author:Roy Chapman Andrews

“The authors that in any nation last from age to age are very few, because there are very few that have any other claim to notice than that they catch hold on present curiosity, and gratify some accidental desire, or produce some temporary conveniency.”

Writing Age Lasts Desire Nations Produce Claims Curiosity Temporary

Book:The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752

Source: The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752

“Where necessity ends, desire and curiosity begin; and no sooner are we supplied with everything nature can demand than we sit down to contrive artificial appetites.”

Ends Desire Demand Curiosity Appetite Artificial Covetousness

Author:Samuel Johnson

“Every desire bears its death in its very gratification. Curiosity languishes under repeated stimulants, and novelties cease to excite and surprise, until at length we cannot wonder even at a miracle.”

Desire Wonder Bears Miracle Surprise Curiosity Cease Length Gratification Novelty Stimulants Languish

Author:Washington Irving

“Intellectual curiosity about one's own illness is certainly born of a desire for mastery. If I couldn't cure myself, perhaps I could at least begin to understand myself.”

Ifs Desire Born Intellectual Curiosity Illness Cures Mastery Intellectual Curiosity

Book:The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves

Source: The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves

“One starts gambling for a joke, out of curiosity, as a little challenge to fortune. One goes on, pricked to the quick by delusions, excited by vague desires that grow. Woe to you if you win anything - an AMBO, a small TERNO! It is all up with you, for your chance of winning seems certain. ... It is the devil's money going back to hell.”

Source: The Land of Cockayne (Matilde Serao) (Literary Thoughts Edition)

“While my chosen form of story-writing is obviously a special and perhaps a narrow one, it is none the less a persistent and permanent type of expression, as old as literature itself. There will always be a certain small percentage of persons who feel a burning curiosity about unknown outer space, and a burning desire to escape from the prison-house of the known and the real into those enchanted lands of incredible adventure and infinite possibilities which dreams open up to us, and which things like deep woods, fantastic urban towers, and flaming sunsets momentarily suggest.”

Source: H.P. Lovecraft: The Ultimate Collection (160 Works Including Early Writings, Fiction, Collaborations, Poetry, Essays & Bonus Audiobook Links)

“A burning itch to know is higher than a solemn vow to pursue truth. To feel the burning itch of curiosity requires both that you be ignorant, and that you desire to relinquish your ignorance.”

Knows Feels Desire Ignorance Higher Curiosity Ignorant Pursue Burning Vow Solemn

Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky

“Human weakness is to desire to know what one does not want to know.”

Knows Want Humans Doe Desire Weakness Curiosity

Author:Moliere

“Reason, in a strict sense, as meaning the judgment of truth and falsehood, can never, of itself, be any motive to the will, and can have no influence but so far as it touches some passion or affection. Abstract relations of ideas are the object of curiosity, not of volition. And matters of fact, where they are neither good nor evil, where they neither excite desire nor aversion, are totally indifferent, and whether known or unknown, whether mistaken or rightly apprehended, cannot be regarded as any motive to action.”

Source: A Dissertation on the Passions: The Natural History of Religion : a Critical Edition