Quotes About Desire

For instance, I remember someone asking Sophocles, the poet, whether he was still capable of enjoying a woman. 'Don't talk in that way,' he answered; 'I am only too glad to be free of all that; it is like escaping from bondage to a raging madman.

But the question is not quite so easy when we proceed to ask whether these principles are three or one; whether, that is to say, we learn with one part of our nature, are angry with another, and with a third part desire the satisfaction of our natural appetites; or whether the whole soul comes into play in each sort of action—to determine that is the difficulty. Yes, he said; there lies the difficulty. Then

as long as we possess the body, and our soul is contaminated by such an evil, we'll surely never adequately gain what we desire —and that, we say, is truth. (...) besides, it fills us up with lusts and desires, with fears and fantasies of every kind, and with any amount of trash, so that really and truly we are, as the saying goes, never able to think of anything at all because of it.

A los amantes les llega el arrepentimiento del bien que hayan podido hacer, tan pronto como se les aplaca su deseo.

Sólo de libre voluntad se somete uno al Amor

Necesariamente aquel cuyo imperio es el deseo, y el placer su esclavitud, hará que el amado le proporcione el mayor gozo. A un enfermo le gusta todo lo que no le contraría; pero le es desagradable lo que es igual o superior a él. El que ama, pues, no soportará de buen grado que su amado le sea mejor o igual, sino que se esforzará siempre en que le sea inferior o más débil.

La amistad del amante no brota del buen sentido, sino como las ganas de comer, del ansia de saciarse.

mira si no es más bien necesario que el que desea le falte la cosa que desea, o bien que no la desee si no le falta.

el que desea, desea lo que no está seguro de poseer, lo que no existe al presente, lo que no posee, lo que no tiene, lo que le falta. Esto es, pues, desear y amar.

the just does not desire more than his like but more than his unlike, whereas the unjust desires more than both his like and unlike

Herein is the evil of ignorance , that he who is neither good nor wise is nevertheless satisfied with himself : he has no desire for that of which he feels no want .

E quem não se considera incompleto e insuficiente, não deseja aquilo cuja falta não pode notar

The true lover of knowledge is always striving after being - that is his nature; he will not rest in the multiplicity of individuals which is an appearance only, but will go on - the keen edge will not be blunted, nor the force of his desire abate until he have attained the knowledge of the true nature of every essence by a sympathetic and kindred power in the soul.

And when you see a man who is repining at the approach of death, is not his reluctance a sufficient proof that he is not a lover of wisdom, but a lover of the body, and probably at the same time a lover of either money or power, or both?

The true lover of learning then must from his earliest youth, as far as in him lies, desire all truth...

Then you have sufficient indication, he said, that any man whom you see resenting death was not a lover of wisdom but a lover of the body, and also a lover of wealth or of honors, either or both.

He who is the victim of his passions and the slave of pleasure will of course desire to make his beloved as agreeable to himself as possible.

Because to the mortal creature, generation is a sort of eternity and immortality,' she replied; 'and if, as has been already admitted, love is of the everlasting possession of the good, all men will necessarily desire immortality together with good: Wherefore love is of immortality.

Llamo hombre vicioso al amante popular que ama el cuerpo más bien que el alma; porque su amor no puede tener duración, puesto que ama una cosa que no dura.

What being is there that does not desire happiness? Well then, since all of us desire happiness, how can we be happy? – that is the next question.

Pour Aristophane, Éros est le seul dieu qui puisse nous permettre de réaliser ce à quoi tend tout être humain : la réunion avec la moitié de lui-même dont il a été séparé par Zeus.

As I kissed Agathon my soul swelled to my lips, where it hangs, pitiful, hoping to leap across.

Women do not like to forgo the 'luxuries of life' and 'conspicuous consumption

Evil is the vulgar lover who loves the body rather than the soul, inasmuch as he is not even stable, because he loves a thing which is in itself unstable, and therefore when the bloom of youth which he was desiring is over, he takes wing and flies away, in spite of all his words and promises; whereas the love of the noble disposition is life-long, for it becomes one with the everlasting