"The problem isn't materialism as such. Rather it is the underlying assumption that full satisfaction can arise from gratifying the senses alone. Unlike animals whose quest for happiness is restricted to survival and to the immediate gratification of sensory desires, we human beings have the capacity to experience happiness at a deeper level which, when achieved, can overwhelm unhappy experiences."
Desire quotes
Desire
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Desire quotes (page 57 of 225)
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"What unites all beings is their desire for happiness."
"The rationale for loving others is the recognition of the simple fact that every living being has the same right to and the same desire for happiness, and not suffering, and the consideration that you as one individual are one life unit as compared with the mulititude of others in their ceaseless quest for happiness."
"A thing may be morally neutral and yet the desire for that thing may be dangerous."
"Beloved," said the Glorious One, "unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek."
"Even if there were pains in Heaven, all who understand would desire them."
"Sometimes I wonder how much of these debates have to do with the desire, the legitimate desire, for that history to be recognized. Because there is a psychic power to the recognition that is not satisfied with a universal program, it's not satisfied by the Affordable Care Act, or an expansion of Pell grants, or an expansion of the earned-income tax credit."
"I got over the loss of his desk and chair, but never the desire to produce a string of words more precious than the emeralds of Cortés."
"Only by accepting our desires can we have an idea of who we are."
"You have always fought against your dreams, and 'I want' has never even shown its face. It was always drowned out by 'I must' or 'I hope' or 'I need...'"
"It isn't the desire to abide by the law that makes everyone behave as society requires, but the fear of punishment. Each one of us carries a gallows inside us."
"I haven't written a word of fiction since 2009. I have no desire to write fiction. I did what I did and it's done. There's more to life than writing and publishing fiction. There is another way entirely, amazed as I am to discover it at this late date."
"Nothing has a more sinister effect on art than the artist's desire to prove that he's good. The terrible temptation of idealism!"
"In my heart, my first desire was to be a dancer. I always wanted to dance and I danced from the time I was 7 till I was well into my 30s."
"Love is simply the name for the desire and pursuit of the whole."
"In my younger days I struggled constantly with an overwhelming but pure love affair - my only one, and I would have struggled with it longer had not premature death, bitter but salutary for me, extinguished the cooling flames. I certainly wish I could say that I have always been entirely free from desires of the flesh, but I would be lying if I did."
"Desire creates its own object."
"What you desire you call into being."
"What I want is to get done what the people desire to have done, and the question for me is how to find that out exactly."
"You already know I desire that neither Father or Mother shall be in want of any comfort either in health or sickness while they live."