Quotes About Desire

Being wealthy isn't just a question of having lots of money. It's a question of what we want. Wealth isn't an absolute, it's relative to desire. Every time we seek something that we can't afford, we can be counted as poor, how much money we may actually have.

It is hard to prevent oneself from believing what one so keenly desires, and who can doubt that the interest we have in admitting or denying the reality of the Judgement to come determines the faith of most men in accordance with their hopes and fears.

As long as we desire, we can do without happiness: we expect to achieve it. If happiness fails to come, hope persists, and the charm of illusion lasts as long as the passion that causes it. So this condition is sufficient in itself, and the anxiety it inflicts is a sort of enjoyment that compensates for reality… Woe to him who has nothing left to desire… We enjoy less what we obtain than what we hope for, and we are happy only before being happy.

T]he mere impulse of appetite is slavery, while obedience to a law which we prescribe to ourselves is liberty.

Die Freiheit des Menschen liegt nicht darin, dass er tun kann, was er will, sondern dass er nicht tun muss, was er nicht will.

The sword wears out its sheath, as it is sometimes said. That is my story. My passions have made me live, and my passions have killed me. What passions, it may be asked. Trifles, the most childish things in the world. Yet they affected me as much as if the possessions of Helen, or the throne of the Universe, had been at stake.

The former breathes only peace and liberty; he desires only to live and be free from labor; even the ataraxia of the Stoic falls far short of his profound indifference to every other object.

Whether the woman shares the man's passion or not, whether she is willing or unwilling to satisfy it, she always repulses him and defends herself, though not always with the same vigour, and therefore not always with the same success.

He who wills the end wills the means also

One always wants what is good for oneself, but one does not always see it. The people is never corrupted, but it is often fooled, and only then does it appear to want what is bad.

L'homme vraiment libre ne veut que ce qu'il peut, et fait ce qu'il lui plaît.

Di solito si ottiene con tutta sicurezza e assai presto ciò che non si ha fretta di ottenere.

Hallando en cada enfermedad síntomas de la mía, creía tenerlas todas y contraje una más cruel de que me conceptuaba libre: el anhelo de curar; y es una enfermedad difícil de evitar cuando se leen libros de medicina.

l'impulsion du seul appétit est esclavage, et l'obéissance à la loi qu'on s'est prescrite est liberté.

There is, I feel, an age at which the individual man would want to stop: you wi l seek the age at which you would desire your Species had stopped. Discontented with your present state for reasons that foretell even greater discontents for your unhappy Posterity, perhaps you would want to be able to go backward in time. This sentiment must be the Eulogy of your first ancestors, the criticism of your contemporaries, and the dread of those who will have the unhappiness to live after you.

The money which a man possesses is the instrument of freedom; that which we eagerly pursue is the instrument of slavery. Therefore I hold fast to that which I have, and desire nothing.

My lack of success with women has always come from loving them too much

y yo me adapto tan fácilmente a un método de vida, cuando es voluntario, que sólo hubiera deseado que éste durase siempre.

On obtient très sûrement et très vite ce qu'on n'est pas pressé d'obtenir.

Luxury] corrupts both rich and poor, the rich by having it and the poor by wanting it.

If I could have seen her just once again I should have been content to die at that moment.

On pouvait la voir sans l'aimer, mais non pas la posséder sans l'adorer.

Nikdy jsem nemyslil, že svoboda ?lovÄ›ka by záležela v tom, aby dÄ›lal, co chce, nýbrž spíÅ¡, aby nikdy nedÄ›lal, co nechce, a to je svoboda, jíž jsem se vždy dovolával, ?asto ji zachovával a pro kterou jsem byl nejvíce svým vrstevník?m k pohorÅ¡ení

There is, I feel, an age at which the individual man would want to stop: you will seek the age at which you would desire your Species had stopped. Discontented with your present state for reasons that foretell even greater discontents for your unhappy Posterity, perhaps you would want to be able to go backward in time. This sentiment must be the Eulogy of your first ancestors, the criticism of your contemporaries, and the dread of those who will have the unhappiness to live after you.