Home / Topics / Desire Quotes

Desire Quotes

Browse 12306 quotes about Desire.

Desire Quotes

“We are angry about paying the highest income taxes and property taxes in the nation and getting less and less for it. We are angry about our incompetent, dysfunctional government that pays no attention to the desires of the people. We are angry about the cesspool of corruption and conflicts of interests and self-dealing that is Albany.”

People Self Government Desire Nations Interest Pay Attention Conflict Taxes Highest Angry Property Corruption Income Income Tax Incompetent Conflict Of Interest Albany Property Taxes

Author:Carl Paladino

“Happiness is self-generated as the mind becomes still. As we become involved with the desires of the world, we lose that centering, that stillness.”

World Mind Stills Self Happiness Desire Loses Buddhism Involved Stillness Centering

Author:Frederick Lenz

“Self-realization: No ego, no desires, no weight problems, no tax forms, no death to die, no life to live.”

Self Problem Form Desire Dies Taxes Ego Weight Self Realization Realization Hinduism Weight Problems

Author:Frederick Lenz

“Because gratification of a desire leads to the temporary stilling of the mind and the experience of the peaceful, joyful Self, it's no wonder that we get hooked on thinking that happiness comes from the satisfaction of desires. This is the meaning of the”

Thinking Mind Self Happiness Desire Wonder Gratitude Satisfaction Peaceful Temporary Joyful Gratification Hooked

Author:Joan Z. Borysenko

“This desire to fashion, to shape, a self and a life has all but gone from a contemporary culture whose emphasis, paradoxically enough, is so much on self.”

Self Enough Desire Culture Gone Fashion Shapes Contemporary Emphasis

Author:Lionel Trilling

“Dive into your heart center. Sit in the silence. Desire self-realization with all your heart, with all your mind, and all your soul. Everything will take care of itself.”

Mind Heart Soul Self Care Desire Silence Take Care Self Realization Realization Your Soul

Author:Robert Adams

“Indeed, the very first acknowledgment (as far as I am aware) of the attraction of mutilated bodies occurs in a founding description of mental conflict. It is a passage in The Republic, Book IV, where Plato’s Socrates describes how our reason may be overwhelmed by an unworthy desire, which drives the self to become angry with a part of its nature.”

Firsts May Book Self Reason Body Desire Conflict Angry Attraction Description Republic Passages Plato Founding Overwhelmed Unworthy Acknowledgment Plato S

Book:Regarding the Pain of Others

Source: Regarding the Pain of Others

“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.”

Source: Wit and Wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Being a Treasury of Thousands of Glorious, Inspiring and Imperishable Thoughts, Views and Observations of the Three Great Greek Philosophers, Classified Under about Four Hundred Subjects for Comparative Study

“THE FIRST STEP in changing the future is Desire, that is, define your objective - know definitely what you want. SECOND: construct an event which you believe you would encounter following the fulfillment of your desire - an event which implies fulfillment of your desire - something which will have the action of Self predominant.”

Knows Want Firsts Believe Self Action Desire Steps Events Following What You Want Objectives Fulfillment Encounters First Steps Constructs

Book:The Neville Goddard Collection

Source: The Neville Goddard Collection

“Love longs to be free, a stranger to every worldly desire, lest its inner vision become dimmed, and lest worldly self-interest hinder it or ill-fortune cast it down.”

Love Self Desire Interest Vision Fortune Casts Ill Stranger Worldly Self Interest Hinder Worldly Desires

Author:Thomas a Kempis

“There can be no richer man or woman than the individual who has found his or her labor of love. Personal fulfillment through the virtue of work is the highest form of desire. Work is the conduit between the supply and the demand of all human needs, the forerunner of human progress, and the medium by which the imagination is given the wings of action. A labor of love is exalted because it provides joy and self-expression to those who perform it.”

Source: What Makes the Great Great: Strategies for Extraordinary Achievement

“Worship means reverence and humility. It means revering your real self and humbling delusions. If you can wipe out evil desires and harbor good thoughts, even if nothing shows, it's worship. Such form is its real form.”

Ifs Mean Real Self Shows Form Desire Evil Humility Worship Delusion Reverence Wipe Harbors Good Thoughts Humbling Real Self

Book:The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma

Source: The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma

“What is joy? Joy is nothing but the Self. When desires are fulfilled, the mind is stilled. This allows the Self to shine forth and that is what we call joy.”

Mind Self Spiritual Joy Desire Shining Fulfilled

Author:Lester Levenson

“Every act of will is an act of self-limitation. To desire action is to desire limitation. In that sense, every act is an act of self-sacrifice. When you choose anything, you reject everything else.”

Self Action Desire Sacrifice Limitation Rejects You Choose Self Sacrifice

Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton

Source: The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton

“A man makes inferiors his superiors by heat; self control is the rule. Anger is an uncontrollable feeling that betrays what you are when you are not yourself. Anger is that powerful internal force that blows out the light of reason. Know this to be the enemy: it is anger, born of desire.”

Knows Men Self Reason Feelings Light Desire Force Born Powerful Enemy Anger Blow Superiors Heat Internals Betray Self Control Inferiors Uncontrollable

Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson

“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.”

Source: Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer

“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.”

Trying Ends Self Desire Individual Realizing Consciousness Identity Findings Burden Chiefs Frustrated Imitation New Life Unwanted Slough

Book:THE TRUE BELIEVER

Source: THE TRUE BELIEVER

“Devotional singing induces in you a desire for experiencing the truth, to glimpse the beauty that is God, to taste the bliss that is the Self. It encourages man to dive into himself and be genuinely his real Self.”

Men Real Self Desire Taste Singing Bliss Glimpse Devotional Real Self Bhajans

Author:Sathya Sai Baba

“Positive self-esteem operates as, in effect, the immune system of the consciousness, providing resistance, strength, and a capacity for regeneration. When self-esteem is low, our resilience in the face of life's adversities is diminished. We crumble before vicissitudes that a healthier sense of self could vanquish. We tend to be more influenced by the desire to avoid pain than to experience joy. Negatives have more power over us than positives.”

Source: Power of Self Esteem

“Demons frighten us because we set ourselves up to be frightened. We are overly attached to our reputations and possessions. When we love and desire what we should be rejecting, we are in conflict with our true selves. That's when the negative energies catch us and use our weapons against us. Instead of taking up what we have to defend ourselves, we put our swords in the hands of our enemies and make them attack us.”

Should Self Use Hands Desire Energy Enemy Conflict Weapons Negative Possession Reputation Demon Attachment Frightened True Self Rejecting Negative Energy

Author:Teresa Giudice

“Ultimate peace begins within; when we find peace within there will be no more conflict, no more occasion for war. If this is the peace you seek, purify your body by sensible living habits, purify your mind by expelling all negative thoughts, purify your motives by casting out any ideas of greed or self-striving and by seeking to serve you fellow human beings, purify your desires by eliminating all wishes for material possessions or self-glorification and by desiring to know and do God's will for you. Inspire others to do likewise.”

“Negro producers, Negro distributors, Negro consumers! The world of Negroes can be self contained. We desire earnestly to deal with the rest of the world, but if the rest of the world desire not, we seek not”

Ifs World Self Desire Deals Producers Consumers Distributors Self Contained

Author:Marcus Garvey

“Only listen to the observations of the enlightened because everyone else is self-centered, egocentric and bound by the net of desire.”

Self Desire Teacher Bounds Observation Enlightened Self Centered Egocentric

Author:Frederick Lenz

“Belonging is the innate human desire to be part of something larger than us. Because this yearning is so primal, we often try to acquire it by fitting in and by seeking approval, which are not only hollow substitutes for belonging, but often barriers to it. Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.”

Source: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

“If you hate yourself and your desires, well, you know, God is your desires and God is your self. As long as you hate God, you'll never realize God.”

Ifs Knows Wells Long Self God Desire Hate Realizing Hate You Knowing God Hate God

Author:Frederick Lenz

“We hide in relationships. We hide in material possessions. We hide in ambitions, secret desires, hates, frustrations, jealousy, self-ptiy, in our insecurity - and more than anything our vanity and our egotism.”

Self Desire Hate Secret Materials Ambition Yoga Possession Karma Vanity Frustration Insecurity Egotism Karma Yoga Material Possessions Secret Desire

Author:Frederick Lenz

“My father was a naturalist and a very spiritual person, who had a great desire to pass on his knowledge to others, so that they could receive the benefits of Jiu Jitsu as well. Growing up in this environment, I learned the art of Jiu Jitsu is actually a method through which one strives for self-perfection.”

Wells Persons Art Self Spiritual Desire Father Growing Up Environment Growing Benefits Perfection Method Strive Strife Naturalist Jiu Jitsu Self Perfection

Author:Carlos Gracie, Jr.

“O love, whose lordly hand Has bridled my desires, And raised my hunger and my thirst To dignity and pride, Let not the strong in me and the constant Eat the bread or drink the wine That tempt my weaker self. Let me rather starve, And let my heart parch with thirst, And let me die and perish, Ere I stretch my hand To a cup you did not fill, Or a bowl you did not bless.”

Heart Self Hands Desire Dies Strong Pride My Heart Drink Dignity Let Me Wine Constant Raised Hunger Bread Cups Bless Bowls Thirst Dignity And Pride

Author:Khalil Gibran

“If sophistication is a matter of being in control of our primary reactions, we may now be sophisticated. At least we shall be fairly confident of ourselves and may, with any luck, be confident of others. Our object will be to enjoy our selves. But to make sure that our names are permanently on the cast list, it will be advisable to be of interest to others. This aim must never be confused with the desire to be popular.”

Ifs May Self Matter Desire Names Enjoy Interest Objects Aim Luck Casts Lists Reactions Primaries Confused Sophisticated Sophistication Be Confident Advisable

Author:Quentin Crisp

“Business is a creative and therefore spiritual endeavor. Great entrepreneurs enter the field of business in the same way great artists enter the field of art. With their business creation, entrepreneurs express their spiritual desire for self-realization, evolutionary passion for self- fulfillment, and creative vision of a new world. The entrepreneur's business is their artwork. The creation of business is as creative as any creation in art. In fact, building a business may be the most creative human activity.”

“Don't let your negative self beliefs haunt you out of taking action. You owe it to yourself to live the life that you desire.”

Self Action Desire Belief Negative Live Life Taking Action Belief In Self

Author:Joel Brown

“The idea of duty, that recognition of something to be lived for beyond the mere satisfaction of self, is to the moral life what the addition of a great central ganglion is to animal life. No man can begin to mould himself on a faith or an idea without rising to a higher order of experience: a principle of subordination, of self-mastery, has been introduced into his nature; he is no longer a mere bundle of impressions, desires, and impulses.”

Source: Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)

“Philosophers are not honest enough in their work, although they make a lot of virtuous noise when the problem of truthfulness is touched even remotely. They all pose as if they had discovered and reached their real opinions through the self-development of a cold, pure, divinely unconcerned dialectic...; while at bottom it is an assumption, a hunch, indeed a kind of "inspiration" most often a desire of the heart that has been filtered and made abstract that they defend with reasons they have sought after the fact.”

“It is only by frequent deaths of ourselves and our self-centered desires that we can come to live more fully.”

Self Desire Self Centered

Author:Mother Teresa

“In a man like Friedrich von Schlegel the courage to be as an individual self produced complete neglect of participation, but it also produced, in reaction to the emptiness of this self-affirmation, the desire to return to a collective. Schlegel, and with him many extreme individualists in the last hundred years, became Roman Catholics. The courage to be as oneself broke down, and one turned to an institutional embodiment of the courage to be as a part.”

“Alas! how many souls there are full of self, and yet desirous of doing good and serving God, but in such a way as to suit themselves; who desire to impose rules upon God as to His manner of drawing them to Himself. They want to serve and possess Him, but they are not willing to be possessed by Him.”

Way Want Soul Self Desire Willing Drawing Suits Selfishness Serving Possessed Serving God Alas Doing Good

Author:Francois Fenelon

“The reputation of a Don Juan gives to a man the most dangerous power. Wise virgins resist it, but foolish virgins frequently yield to the desire to take a celebrated lover from a rival - even from a friend. This emotion is a complex one, mad up of vanity, respect for another woman's taste, and the need to establish self-assurance by winning a difficult victory. Don Juan chose his first mistresses; later he was chosen.”

“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

“Erasmus dramatizes a well-established political position: that of the fool who claims license to criticize all and sundry without reprisal, since his madness defines him as not fully a person and therefore not a political being with political desires and ambitions. The Praise of Folly, therefore sketches the possibility of a position for the critic of the scene of political rivalry, a position not simply impartial between the rivals but also, by self-definition, off the stage of rivalry altogether.”

Wells Persons Self Political Desire Stage Possibility Position Fool Scene Ambition Claims Madness Praise Critics Definitions Folly Criticize License Rivals Rivalry Reprisal Erasmus

Author:J. M. Coetzee

“We were meant to do more than make sure that all of our needs are fulfilled and all our desires are satisfied. We were never meant to be self-focused little kings ruling miniscule little kingdoms with a population of one.”

Needs Littles Self Desire Kings Population Focused Satisfied Kingdoms Meant To Be Fulfilled Ruling

Author:Paul David Tripp

“Scientists have long known that Darwinism is false. They have adhered to the myth out of self-interest and a zealous desire to put down God.”

Long Self Desire Interest Known Scientist Myth Self Interest Darwinism Zealous

Author:Phillip E. Johnson

“To trust yourself is to trust Silence. To trust your own heart is to trust the wisdom that is radiating and shining. All the thoughts, feelings, desires, and fears are just a superimposition that is called 'myself.' When all that disappears, for at least a moment, your Self shines forth. Radiantly, clear, and empty. Needing nothing, nourished, and overflowing.”

Heart Self Moments Feelings Desire Silence Clear Empty Shining Disappear Trust Yourself

Author:Eli Jaxon-Bear

“If the goal is to realize the Supreme Being, you should become egoless. That requires self-effort. The sadhak should work hard. He should pray sincerely for the removal of the negative tendencies. This prayer is not to achieve anything or to fulfill any desires. It is to go beyond all achievements. It is to transcend all desires.”

Ifs Should Self Hard Desire Goal Realizing Prayer Effort Achieve Hard Work Praying Achievement Negative Excellence Supreme Tendencies Sincerely Removal Supreme Being

Author:Mata Amritanandamayi

“Sexual integrity means honestly recognizing our own impulses and desires and honoring them, whether or not we choose to act on them. If we value integrity, we must also value diversity in sexual expression and orientation, recognizing that there is no one truth, or one way, that fits everyone.Sexuality is sacred because through it we make a connection with another self - but it is misused and perverted when it becomes an arena of power-over, a means of treating another - or oneself - as an object.”

Ifs Way Mean Self Desire Values Objects Expression Fit Integrity Diversity Connections Sacred Oneself Sexuality Honestly One Way Impulse Recognizing Arena Orientation Misused

Book:Dreaming the Dark

Source: Dreaming the Dark

“Never value anything as profitable to thyself which shall compel thee to break thy promise, to lose thy self-respect, to hate any man, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything which needs walls and curtains.”

Men Needs Self Desire Values Hate Loses Break Atheism Wall Promise Thee Curse Self Respect Suspects Curtains Thyself Profitable Hypocrite

Book:沉思錄:讀了一百年還要再讀一百年的不朽鉅著

Source: 沉思錄:讀了一百年還要再讀一百年的不朽鉅著

“Three enemies that will weaken your ministry over time: Self-indulgence, bitterness, and carelessness. Strong people discipline their desires, restrain their reactions, and keep their commitments.”

People Self Desire Three Strong Enemy Discipline Commitment Reactions Bitterness Ministry Indulgence Carelessness Self Indulgence Strong People

Author:Rick Warren

“Nervousness is caused by wanting two opposing things at the same time, one consciously and the other subconsciously. The battle is resolved when you make the subconscious desire conscious. On the other hand, if you know what you are, there will be no conflicts. You can do that through seeking. It is not necessary to understand the negative. It is far better to be positive. Be Your Self.”

Ifs Knows Two Self Hands Desire Can Do Battle Conflict Conscious Negative Seeking Subconscious Opposing Being Positive Nervousness

Author:Lester Levenson

“The self forms at the edge of desire, and a science of self arises in the effort to leave that self behind.”

Self Form Desire Effort Behinds Edges Arise

Book:Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay

Source: Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay

“Had Allah lifted the veil for his slave and shown him how He handles his affairs for him, and how Allah is more keen for the benefit of the slave than his own self, his heart would have melted out of the love for Allah and would have been torn to pieces out of thankfulness to Allah. Therefore if the pains of this world tire you, do not grieve. For it may be that Allah wishes to hear your voice by way of Dua'a. So pour out your desires in prostration and forget about it and know; that verily Allah does not forget it.”

“A true and safe leader is likely to be one who has no desire to lead, but is forced into a position by the inward pressure of the Holy Spirit and the press of [circumstances]... The man who is ambitious to lead is disqualified as a leader. The true leader will have no desire to lord it over God's heritage, but will be humble, gentle, self-sacrificing and altogether ready to follow when the Spirit chooses another to lead.”

Men Self Spirit Desire Leader Lord Sacrifice Position He Man Ready Circumstances Holy Safe Pressure Presses Humble Gentle Holy Spirit Heritage Ambitious Inward Be Humble True Leader

Author:Aiden Wilson Tozer