Desire Quotes

How helpless we are, like netted birds, when we are caught by desire!

Life ought to be a struggle of desire toward adventures whose nobility will fertilize the soul.

A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs.

One must desire something to be alive.

What makes the engine go? Desire, desire, desire.

While we don't have much say over the desires that we have, we certainly can decide which we prefer-and then search for ways to act on that basis.

Desires are only the lack of something: and those who have the greatest desires are in a worse condition than those who have none, or very slight ones.

Man is the only animal whose desires increase as they are fed; the only animal that is never satisfied.

Desire creates the power.

If you greatly desire something, have the guts to stake everything on obtaining it.

Dwell not upon thy weariness, thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire.

One must not lose desires. They are mighty stimulants to creativeness, to love, and to long life.

Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.

There is no calamity greater than lavish desires.
There is no greater guilt than discontentment.
And there is no greater disaster than greed.

It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.

Again, men in general desire the good, and not merely what their fathers had.

We desire nothing so much as what we ought not to have.

Every man has business and desire,
Such as it is.

Some prices are just too high, no matter how much you may want the prize. The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart.

When you relinquish the desire to control your future, you can have more happiness.

There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it.

He who desires is always poor.

The wise man will love; all others will desire.

In men of the highest character and noblest genius there is to be found an insatiable desire for honour, command, power, and glory.

Man is an animal which, alone among the animals, refuses to be satisfied by the fulfilment of animal desires.

Let your desires be ruled by reason.
(Appetitus Rationi Pareat)

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies.

Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.

If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.