Quotes About Desire

I pray—for fashion's word is outAnd prayer comes round again—That I may seem, though I die old,A foolish, passionate man.

Take, if you must, this little bag of dreams, Unloose the cord, and they will wrap you round.

What shall I do for pretty girlsNow my old bawd is dead?

Everything that man esteemsEndures a moment or a day.Love's pleasure drives his love away,The painter's brush consumes his dreams.

I have known more men destroyed by the desire to have wife and child and to keep them in comfort than I have seen destroyed by drink and harlots.

Never give all the heart, for loveWill hardly seem worth thinking ofTo passionate women if it seemCertain, and they never dreamThat it fades out from kiss to kiss;For everything that's lovely isBut a brief, dreamy kind delight.

What were all the world's alarmsTo mighty Paris when he foundSleep upon a golden bedThat first dawn in Helen's arms?

Land of Heart's Desire,Where beauty has no ebb, decay no flood,But joy is wisdom, time an endless song.

I had wild Jack for a lover.

O heart! O heart! if she'd but turn her head,You'd know the folly of being comforted.

You shall go with me, newly-married bride,And gaze upon a merrier multitude.White-armed Nuala, Aengus of the Birds,Feachra of the hurtling form, and himWho is the ruler of the Western Host,Finvara, and their Land of Heart's Desire.Where beauty has no ebb, decay no flood,But joy is wisdom, time an endless song.

I am still of [the] opinion that only two topics can be of the least interest to a serious and studious mood--sex and the dead.

But I, being poor, have only my dreams. I lay them at your feet. Tread lightly, for you tread on my dreams.

Does the imagination dwell the most Upon a woman won or a woman lost?

Politics How can I, that girl standing there, My attention fix On Roman or on Russian Or on Spanish politics? Yet here's a travelled man that knows What he talks about, And there's a politician That has read and thought, And maybe what they say is true Of war and war's alarms, But O that I were young again And held her in my arms!

In the dim kingdom there is a great abundance of all excellent things. There is more love there than upon the earth; there is more dancing there than upon the earth; and there is more treasure there than upon the earth. In the beginning the earth was perhaps made to fulfill the desire of man, but now it has got old and fallen into decay. What wonder if we try and pilfer the treasures of that other kingdom! ("The Three O'Byrnes and the Evil Faeries")

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

This is Just to Say I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold

All women are not Helen, I know that, but have Helen in their hearts.

Everything I've never done, I want to do with you.

All explorers are seeking something they have lost. It is seldom that they find it, and more seldom still that the attainment brings them greater happiness than the quest.

Another great evil arising from this desire to be thought rich; or rather, from the desire not to be thought poor, is the destructive thing which has been honoured by the name of speculation; but which ought to be called Gambling.

Another great evil arising from this desire to be thought rich; or rather, from the desire not to be thought poor, is the destructive thing which has been honored by the name of speculation; but which ought to be called Gambling.

Curst be the Gold and Silver which persuade Weak Men to follow far-fatiguing Trade! The Lilly-Peace outshines the silver Store, And Life is dearer than the golden Ore. Yet Money tempts us o'er the Desert brown, To ev'ry distant Mart and wealthy Town: Full oft we tempt the Land and Sea; And are we only yet repay'd by Thee? Ah! why was Ruin so attractive made, Or why fond Man so easily betrayed? - Eclogue the Second. Hassan; or the Camel-driver