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Desire Quotes

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Desire Quotes

“Dogs invite us not only to share their joy but also to live in the moment, where we are neither proceeding from nor moving toward, where the enchantment of the past and future cannot distract us, where a freedom from practical desire and a cessation of our usual ceaseless action allows us to recognize the truth of our existence, the reality of our world and purpose--if we dare.”

Source: The Odd Thomas Series 7-Book Bundle: Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, Odd Hours, Odd Apocalypse, Odd Interlude, Deeply Odd

“Vanity is a desire of personal glory, the wish to be appreciated, honoured, and run after, not because of one's personal qualities, merits, and achievements, but because of one's individual existence. At best, therefore, it is a frivolous beauty whim it befits.”

Running Desire Individual Wish Existence Quality Achievement Glory Vanity Merit Appreciated Whim Frivolous Personal Qualities

Book:Maxims and Reflections

Source: Maxims and Reflections

“No joy for which thy hungering heart has panted, No hope it cherishes through waiting years, But if thou dost deserve it, shall be granted For with each passionate wish the blessing nears. Tune up the fine, strong instrument of thy being To chord with thy dear hope, and do not tire. When both in key and rhythm are agreeing, Lo! thou shalt kiss the lips of thy desire. The thing thou cravest so waits in the distance, Wrapt in the silences, unseen and dumb: Essential to thy soul and thy existence-- Live worthy of it--call, and it shall come.”

Source: Complete Poetical Works of Ella Wheeler Wilcox (Delphi Classics)

“The truth of practical intellect is understood not as conformity to an extramental being but as conformity to a right desire; the end is no longer to know what is, but to bring into existence that which is not yet.”

Knows Ends Desire Existence Understood Intellect Practicals Conformity

Author:Jacques Maritain

“For me, spirituality includes the belief in things larger than ourselves, an appreciation of nature and beauty, a sensitivity to the world, a feeling of shared connection with other living things, a desire to help people less fortunate than ourselves. All of these things can occur with or without God. I do not believe in the existence of God, but I consider myself a spiritual person in the manner I have just described. I call myself a spiritual atheist. I would imagine that many people are spiritual atheists.”

“If my interlocutor desires to convince me that Jupiter has inhabitants, and that his description of them is accurate, it is for him to bring forward evidence in support of his contention. The burden of proof evidently lies on him; it is not for me to prove that no such beings exist before my non-belief is justified, but for him to prove that they do exist before my belief can be fairly claimed. Similarly, it is for the affirmer of God's existence to bring evidence in support of his affirmation; the burden of proof lies on him.”

Source: The Origins of Theosophy (Routledge Revivals): Annie Besant - The Atheist Years

“Surely if living creatures saw the results of all their evil deeds, they would turn away from them in disgust. But selfhood blinds them, and they cling to their obnoxious desires. They crave pleasure for themselves and they cause pain to others; when death destroys their individuality, they find no peace; their thirst for existence abides and their selfhood reappears in new births. Thus they continue to move in the coil and can find no escape from the hell of their own making.”

Ifs Pain Moving Desire Turns Evil Causes Pleasure Results Existence Hell Saws Birth Creatures Individuality Deeds Karma Disgusting Thirst Crave Living Creatures Obnoxious

Author:Gautama Buddha

“The disappointed man turns his thoughts toward a state of existence where his wiser desires may be fixed with the certainty of faith; the successful man feels that the objects which he has ardently pursued fail to satisfy the cravings of an immortal spirit; the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness, that he may save his soul alive.”

Source: On Sir Francis Burdett's motion for parliamentary reform.-On the conduct of the war.-On the cry of the Whigs for peace, 1810.-Army and navy reforms, 1810.-On the economical reformers, 1811.-On the state of the poor.-The principle of Mr. Malthus's essay on population.-The manufacturing system, 1812.-On the state of the poor.-On the accounts of England by foreign travellers and the state of public opinion, 1816.-On the state of public opinion and the political reformers, 1816.-v.2 A letter to Will

“I want to live faster, faster, faster! ... I fear that this desire to live always at high pressure is the presage of a short existence. Who knows?”

Knows Want Desire Existence Pressure Faster Intensity Desire To Live

Book:Marie Bashkirtseff: the journal of a young artist, 1860-1884

Source: Marie Bashkirtseff: the journal of a young artist, 1860-1884

“When does one ever know a human being? Perhaps only after one has realized the impossibility of knowledge and renounced the desire for it and finally ceased to feel even the need of it. But then what one achieves is no longer knowledge, it is simply a kind of co-existence; and this too is one of the guises of love.”

Knows Needs Feels Humans Kind Doe Desire Human Beings Existence Achieve Impossibility Guise

Book:Under the Net: A Novel

Source: Under the Net: A Novel

“To stroll is a science, it is the gastronomy of the eye. To walk is to vegetate, to stroll is to live.... To stroll is to enjoy, it is to assume a mind-set, it is to admire the sublime pictures of unhappiness, of love, of joy, of graceful or grotesque portraits; it is to plunge one's vision to the depths of a thousand existences: young, it is to desire everything; old, it is to live the life of the young, to marry their passions.”

Mind Eye Young Joy Desire Passion Enjoy Walks Existence Vision Walking Thousand Behavior Assuming Depth Admire Live Life Unhappiness Leisure Portraits Sublime Plunge Grotesque Mind Set

Author:Honore de Balzac

“We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavor to shine. We labor unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence and neglect the real.”

Mind Real Desire Purpose Existence Labor Shining Vanity Preserves Hypocrisy Neglect Endeavor Imaginary Desire To Live Imaginary Life

Book:Thoughts, Letters, and Minor Works

Source: Thoughts, Letters, and Minor Works

“It is a human circumstance that when we are born we have not yet come into existence. We are lured into our special human existence by a mothering presence that gratifies our innate urges to be suckled, held, rocked, caressed. But that same gratifying presence puts limits on desire and rations satisfaction. In this sense the mother is also the first lawgiver.”

Firsts Humans Mother Desire Born Existence Special Circumstances Limits Satisfaction Urges Innate Human Existence Mothering Rations

Book:Adolescence: The Farewell to Childhood

Source: Adolescence: The Farewell to Childhood

“New York was a new and strange world. Vast, impersonal, merciless.... Always before I had felt like a person, an individual, hopeful that I could mold my life according to some desire of my own. But here in New York I was ignorant, insignificant, unimportant--one in millions whose destiny concerned no one. New York did not even know of my existence. Nor did it care.”

Knows World Persons Care Desire Individual Felt My Own Existence Destiny Millions New York Strange Concerned Ignorant Hopeful Insignificant Mold Unimportant Strange World

Book:Daughter of Earth

Source: Daughter of Earth

“Here is one of the fundamental defects of American fiction--perhaps the one character that sets it off sharply from all other known kinds of contemporary fiction. It habitually exhibits, not a man of delicate organization in revolt against the inexplicable tragedy of existence, but a man of low sensibilities and elemental desires yielding himself gladly to his environment, and so achieving what, under a third-rate civilization, passes for success. To get on: this is the aim. To weigh and reflect, to doubt and rebel: this is the thing to be avoided.”

Source: H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series

“We can trace back our existence almost to a point. Former time presents us with trains of thoughts gradually diminishing to nothing. But our ideas of futurity are perpetually expanding. Our desires and our hopes, even when modified by our fears, seem to grasp at immensity. This alone would be sufficient to prove the progressiveness of our nature, and that this little earth is but a point from which we start toward a perfection of being.”

Littles Ideas Seems Would Be Earth Desire Existence Progress Prove Perfection Train Former Sufficient Expanding Immensity Train Of Thought

Author:Humphry Davy