"It is not the actual enjoyment of pleasure that we desire. What we want is to test the futility of that pleasure, so as to be no longer obsessed by it."
Read quote
6 likes
Desire quotes
Desire
4.5K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Topics related to Desire
Browse quotes that often appear alongside desire — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Desire quotes (page 41 of 225)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"The superior man does what is proper to the station in which he is; he does not desire to go beyond this."
Read quote
6 likes
"The gentleman desires to be halting in speech but quick in action."
Read quote
6 likes
"What a weary time those years were -- to have the desire and the need to live but not the ability."
Read quote
6 likes
"Only in thought is man a God; in action and desire we are the slaves of circumstance."
Read quote
6 likes
"What is it, in your opinion, to be a great nobleman? It is to be master of several objects that men covet, and thus to be able to satisfy the wants and the desires of many. It is these wants and these desires that attract them towards you, and that make them submit to you: were it not for these, they would not even look at you; but they hope, by these services... to obtain from you some part of the good which they desire, and of which they see that you have the disposal."
Read quote
6 likes
"Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them."
Read quote
6 likes
"Let the future remain uncertain, for that is the canvas to receive our desires."
Read quote
6 likes
"Flood your mind continually with pictures of the health, happiness, and prosperity that you desire."
Read quote
6 likes
"To be wealthy you must develop a burning desire for wealth and financial independence."
Read quote
6 likes
"The clearer you are about the consequences of your actions and the more intensely you desire to enjoy the consequences that your behaviors may lead to, the more motivated you will be."
Read quote
6 likes
"It is characteristic of the military mentality that non-human factors ... are held essential, while the human being, his desires and thoughts-in short, the psychological factors-are considered as unimportant and secondary."
Read quote
6 likes
"Man wants to live, but it is useless to hope that this desire will dictate all his actions."
Read quote
6 likes
"Every man's road in life is marked by the grave of his personal likings."
Read quote
6 likes
"Men praise poverty, as the African worships Mumbo Jumbo--from terror of the malign power, and a desire to propitiate at."
Read quote
6 likes
"From the satisfaction of desire there may arise, accompanying joy and as it were sheltering behind it, something not unlike despair."
Read quote
6 likes
"You used to say. "Desire doubled is love and love doubled is madness." Madness doubled is marriage I added when the caustic was cool, not intending to produce a golden rule."
Read quote
6 likes
"The self forms at the edge of desire, and a science of self arises in the effort to leave that self behind."
Read quote
6 likes
"What sets men at variance is but the treachery of language, for always they desire the same things."
Read quote
6 likes
"Man, as an originator of action, is a union of desire and intellect."
Read quote
6 likes