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Desire Quotes

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Desire Quotes

“... the greater part of the population is not very intelligent, dreads responsibility, and desires nothing better than to be told what to do. Provided the rulers do not interfere with its material comforts and its cherished beliefs, it is perfectly happy to let itself be ruled.”

Truth Desire Belief Freedom Responsibility Knowledge Greater Materials Comfort Intelligent Population Dread Rulers Interfere

Book:Complete Essays: 1926-1929

Source: Complete Essays: 1926-1929

“Fiction writers, at least in their braver moments, do desire the truth: to know it, speak it, serve it. But they go about it in a peculiar and devious way, which consists in inventing persons, places, and events which never did and never will exist or occur, and telling about these fictions in detail and at length and with a great deal of emotion, and then when they are done writing down this pack of lies, they say, There! That's the truth!”

Knows Way Writing Persons Done Moments Truth Lying Desire Speak Deals Emotion Fiction Events Details Length Peculiar Packs Inventing Fiction Writers Devious

Book:The Left Hand of Darkness

Source: The Left Hand of Darkness

“Just as soon as any conviction of important truth becomes central and vital, there comes the desire to utter it - a desire which is immediate and irresistible. Sacrifice is gladness, service is joy, when such an idea becomes a commanding power.”

Important Ideas Truth Joy Desire Sacrifice Truth Is Conviction Irresistible Gladness

Author:Richard Salter Storrs

“It is impossible that the whole of truth should not be present at every time and every place, available for anyone who desires it.”

Should Whole Truth Desire Impossible Available

Book:First and last notebooks

Source: First and last notebooks

“We have great power to see the truth when the truth is all we wish to see; but what is easier than to credit what we desire? and can a man deceive anyone so easily as himself?”

Men Truth Desire Wish Easier Truth Is Credit Deceiving Great Power

Author:James Vila Blake

“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

“To invent without scruple a new principle to every new phenomenon, instead of adapting it to the old; to overload our hypothesis with a variety of this kind, are certain proofs that none of these principles is the just one, and that we only desire, by a number of falsehoods, to cover our ignorance of the truth.”

Kind Truth Desire Certain Numbers Principles Ignorance Proof Variety Just One Phenomenon Falsehood Hypothesis Adapting Scruples Overload

Book:A Treatise of Human Nature

Source: A Treatise of Human Nature

“The life of a thinking man will probably be divided into two parts -- the first in which he desires to exterminate modern thinkers, and the second in which he desires to watch them exterminating each other. ... Suppose, for instance, there is an old story and a new skeptic who is skeptical of the story. We have only to wait a little while for a yet newer skeptic who is skeptical of the skeptic. He will probably find the old notion actually a help in his new notion. This process is an abstract truth applying to anything, apart from agreement or disagreement.”

“There is a close relationship between a house full of possessions and a heart full of desires, between a cluttered closet and a crowded schedule, between having no place to put possessions and having no priorities for our life. These are precious clues. They remind us to slow down, to live in the present, to reduce the desires that drain our vitality, to clarify priorities so we can give our time and attention to what matters most. Tragically, in the press of modern life, we have managed to get backwards one of life's most vital truths: people are to be loved; things are to be used.”

“Greatest victory which we desire, is to defeat truth and Lo! Truth is undefeated”

Truth Desire Victory Truth Is Defeat Undefeated Greatest Victory

Author:Aftab Alam