Home / Topics / Desire Quotes

Desire Quotes

Browse 12306 quotes about Desire.

Desire Quotes

“The mind is a machine that is constantly asking: What would I prefer? Close your eyes, refuse to move, and watch what your mind does. What it does is become discontent with that-which-is. A desire arises, you satisfy that desire, and another arises in its place.”

Mind Doe Eye Moving Desire Watches Machines Asking Refuse Arise Discontent

Book:The Brain-Dead Megaphone

Source: The Brain-Dead Megaphone

“You must start with desire, keeping in mind that with the magic of believing you can obtain what you picture in your mind's eye.”

Mind Believe Eye Desire Belief Magic

Book:The Magic of Believing

Source: The Magic of Believing

“Catastrophe and desire are linked in our lives as the moon is linked to that reflected light from the sun which enables the eye to see it.”

Light Eye Desire Sun Our Lives Moon Catastrophe Linked

Book:The Magic Will: Stories & Essays

Source: The Magic Will: Stories & Essays

“We have close to us as much as Joseph had at Nazareth; we have our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, but our poor eyes fail to see Him. Let us once become interior souls and we shall immediately see. In no better way can we enter into the Heart of our Lord than through Saint Joseph. Jesus and Mary are eager to pay the debts which they owe him for his devoted care of them, and their greatest pleasure is to fulfill his least desire. Let him, then, lead you by hand into the interior sanctuary of Jesus Eucharistic.”

“Do not let your "eye" be drawn by the false "beacon lamps" -of wealth, or position, or fame, or possessions. Be vigilant over your will and desires, for these are the corrupt forces that dwell within, and keep you from living free.”

Eye Desire Force Wealth Position Fame Possession Over You Consumerism Lamps Overconsumption Vigilant Beacons

Author:John of the Cross

“What many men desire--that 'many' may be meant By the fool multitude that choose by show, Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach, Which pries not to th' interior, but like the martlet Builds in the weather on the outward wall, Even in the force and road of casualty.”

Men May Shows Eye Desire Force Teach Wall Fool Weather Multitudes Interiors Casualties Learning More

Author:William Shakespeare

“It is better decoration when, in painting, some monstrosity is introduced for variety and a relaxation of the senses and to attract the attention of mortal eyes, which at times desire to see that which they have never seen.”

Eye Desire Interest Attention Painting Senses Mortals Variety Relaxation Decoration Monstrosity

Author:Michelangelo

“If deceiving the eye were the only business of the art... the minute painter would be more apt to succeed. But it is not the eye, it is the mind which the painter of genius desires to address.”

Ifs Mind Art Would Be Eye Desire Minutes Genius Succeed Painter Deception Addresses Deceiving

Book:The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: Containing His Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland, and His Commentary on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Edward Malone

Source: The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: Containing His Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland, and His Commentary on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Edward Malone

“The blushing cheek speaks modest mind,The lips befitting words most kind,The eye does tempt to love's desire,And seems to, say 'tis "Cupid's fire.”

Mind Kind Doe Seems Eye Desire Speak Fire Lips Cheeks Modest Cupid Blushing

Author:James Harrington

“I believe God has instilled in us a craving, a deep desire to run with Him on a fantastic adventure, yet many of us crawl along in life without even a glimpse of our hidden passion. There has to be a reason for living. There must be a Camelot, a hidden Utopia where we can rest from our personal campaigns. Fantasy opens our eyes to a better place, a shining city we do not yet know. And these stories provide a mental bridge to that city as we pursue horizons we could never distinguish with our physical eyes.”

“But if objects for gratitude and admiration are our desire, do they not present themselves every hour to our eyes?”

Ifs Eye Desire Hours Objects Gratitude Independence Admiration

Book:The Theological Works of Thomas Paine

Source: The Theological Works of Thomas Paine

“Personally I like to imagine something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It's covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth, no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote. Or by voting in presidential elections.”

Eye Running Desire Dark Imagine Week Color Baby Mouths Universal Election Size Extremes Wide Rage Presidential Voting Live By Covered Sweat Potatoes Mute Presidential Election Infantile Hippo

Book:Idoru

Source: Idoru

“And you who sought for magic in your youth but desire it not in your age, know that there is a blindness of spirit which comes from age, more black than the blindness of eye, making a darkness about you across which nothing may be seen, or felt, or known, or in any way apprehended.”

Knows Way May Eye Age Spirit Desire Felt Black Known Darkness Magic Youth Blindness

Author:Lord Dunsany

“It is as his own mind comes into contact with others that truth will begin to acquire value in the child's eyes and will consequently become a moral demand that can be made upon him. As long as the child remains egocentric, truth as such will fail to interest him and he will see no harm in transposing facts in accordance with his desires.”

Mind Children Long Made Facts Eye Desire Values Interest Moral Failing Demand Remains Harm Contact Acquire Egocentric

Book:The Moral Judgement of the Child

Source: The Moral Judgement of the Child

“The phrase, the world wants to be deceived, has become truer than had ever been intended. People are not only, as the saying goes, falling for the swindle; if it guarantees them even the most fleeting gratification they desire a deception which is nonetheless transparent to them. They force their eyes shut and voice approval, in a kind of self-loathing, for what is meted out to them, knowing fully the purpose for which it is manufactured. Without admitting it they sense that their lives would be completely intolerable as soon as they no longer clung to satisfactions which are none at all.”

Source: The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture

“As the eye naturally seeks the light and vision, and our body naturally desires food and drink, so our mind is possessed with a becoming and natural desire to become acquainted with the truth of God and the causes of things.”

Mind Body Light Eye Desire Causes Natural Vision Becoming Drink Possessed Food And Drink Truth Of God

Book:The Sacred Writings of Origen (Annotated Edition)

Source: The Sacred Writings of Origen (Annotated Edition)

“You must be able to see yourself, with your inner eye, already in possession of the good you desire.”

Eye Able Desire Possession

Author:Bob Proctor

“Angels, living light most glorious! Beneath the Godhead in burning desire in the darkness and mystery of creation you look on the eye of your God never taking your fill: What glorious pleasures take shape within you!”

Looks Light Eye Desire Pleasure Darkness Mystery Creation Shapes Angel Burning Glorious Within You Burning Desire

Author:Hildegard of Bingen

“Body, remember not only how much you were loved, not only the beds you lay on, but also those desires glowing openly in eyes that looked at you, trembling for you in voices.”

Body Eye Remember Desire Voice Bed Lays Glowing Trembling

Book:Selected Poems by C.P. Cavafy

Source: Selected Poems by C.P. Cavafy

“I desire a violent, domineering, fearless, and ferocious upcoming generation. It must be able to bear pain. It must show no signs whatsoever of weakness or tenderness. The free and magnificent predator must once again glint from their eyes.”

Shows Eye Able Pain Desire Generations Bears Weakness Violent Fearless Tenderness Magnificent Predator

Author:Adolf Hitler

“Those who, from the desire of our perfection, have the keenest eye far our faults generally compensate for it by taking a higher view of our merits than we deserve.”

Eye Desire Views Higher Deserve Perfection Faults Appreciation Merit

Author:John Frederick Boyes

“Self-reflection is a desire felt by the body, as well as the soul. As dancers, healers, and saints all know, when you turn your attention toward even the simplest physical process - breath, the small movements of the eyes, the turning of a foot in midair - what might have seemed dull matter suddenly awakens.”

Source: The Book of the Courtesans: A Catalogue of Their Virtues

“There is something I have noticed about desire, that it opens the eyes and strikes them blind at the same time.”

Eye Desire Blind Strikes

Author:Jane Smiley

“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

“You know, I often thought that the gangster and the artist are the same in the eyes of the masses. They're admired and hero-worshipped but there is always present underlying desire to see them destroyed at the peak of their glory.”

Knows Art Eye Desire Artist Hero Mass Glory Destroyed Gangsters

Author:Stanley Kubrick

“While criticism or fear of punishment may restrain us from doing wrong, it does not make us wish to do right. Disregarding this simple fact is the great error into which parents and educators fall when they rely on these negative means of correction. The only effective discipline is self-discipline, motivated by the inner desire to act meritoriously in order to do well in one's own eyes, according to one's own values, so that one may feel good about oneself may "have a good conscience.”

“If we desire a kinder nation, seeing it through the eyes of children is an eminently sensible endeavor: A city that is pro-child,for example, is also a more humane place for adults.”

Ifs Children Eye Desire Nations Community Cities Seeing Example Adults Endeavor Sensible Humane Kinder Through The Eyes Eyes Of A Child

Book:Childhood's Future

Source: Childhood's Future

“Though our private desires are ever so confused, though our private requests are ever so broken, and though our private groanings are ever so hidden from men, yet God eyes them, records them, and puts them upon the file of heaven, and will one day crown them with glorious answers and returns.”

Men Eye Desire Heaven Answers Records Broken Return One Day Confused Glorious Crowns Files Request Groaning So Confused

Author:Thomas Brooks