Quotes About Desires

Art is a way into other realities, other personalities. When I let myself be affected by a book, I let into myself new customs and new desires. The book does not reproduce me, it re-defines me, pushes at my boundaries, shatters the palings that guard my heart. Strong texts work along the borders of our minds and alter what already exists. They could not do this if they merely reflected what already exists.

To be driven by our appetites alone is slavery, while to obey a law that we have imposed on ourselves is freedom.

It is by the activity of our passions, that our reason improves: we covet knowledge merely because we covet enjoyment, and it is impossible to conceive why a man exempt from fears and desires should take the trouble to reason.

We seek knowledge only because we desire enjoyment, and it is impossible to conceive why a person who has neither desires nor fears would take the trouble to reason.

D'où vient la faiblesse de l'homme ? De l'inégalité qui se trouve entre sa force et ses désirs. Ce sont nos passions qui nous rendent faibles, parce qu'il faudrait pour les contenter plus de forces que ne nous en donna la nature. Diminuez donc les désirs, c'est comme si vous augmentiez les forces : celui qui peut plus qu'il ne désire en a de reste ; il est certainement un être très fort.

I realized that you can get so used to certain luxuries that you start to think they're necessities, but when you have to forgo them, you come to see that you don't need them after all. There was a difference between needing things and wanting things--though a lot of people had trouble telling the two apart...

any writer is inevitably going to work with his own anxieties and desires. If the book is any good it has got to have in it the fire of a personal unconscious mind.

When all is said and done, the real citadel of strength of any community is in the hearts and minds and desires of those who dwell there.

My parents were relaxed, but very strict on manners. They encouraged us to follow our instincts and desires, so they were quite bohemian in that sense, but we had to work hard and that included chores.

One might as well try to ride two horses moving in different directions, as to try to maintain in equal force two opposing or contradictory sets of desires.

Intrinsically, I'm the same person I was as a young lad, and I think I still have the optimism of life, still the same wants and desires to be good and great about what I do.

O never give me over to my own heart's desires, nor let me follow my own imaginations!

I think there is some overlap in terms of artistic desires and Christian desires.

Men and women's needs and desires overlap but go in different directions as well.

The stage has been set. The Internet will increasingly intersect with culture and government, pulsing through society and disrupting and reshaping the relationship between rulers and ruled that has existed for millennial. Ultimately we are still humans with the same timeless desires, but technology is opening new worlds of possibility. It is empowering societies and creating new definitions of community.

When you get to fifty-two food becomes more important than sex.

If you align your thoughts and your desires underneath His comprehensive rule over every area of your life, you will walk in peace. He will calm your heart and your mind by giving you peace.

Just think, never to be glad or disappointed. Never to like anyone and get cross at him and forgive him. Never to sleep or feel cold, never to make a mistake and have a stomach-ache and be cured from it, never to have a birthday party, drink beer, and have a bad conscience... How terrible.

Sometimes people are very predictable: they want a kitten in June, for example, and come the first of September they want someone to drown their cat. So someone does. But other times, people have dreams and things they want they can keep. Eriksson was the man who fulfilled these dreams. No one knew exactly what he found for himself along the way - probably a lot less than people thought. But he went on doing it anyway, perhaps for the sake of the search.

Just think, never to be glad nor disappointed. Never to like anyone and get crossed at him and forgive him. Never to sleep or feel cold, never to make a mistake and have a belly-ache and be cured from it, never to have a birthday party, drink a beer and have a bad conscience... How terrible.

So many people pretended interest in one thing while truly seeking to benefit their own desires. She was thankful she'd learned early on about the games people played and the falsehoods of fools.

You are the evil scientist of your desires. - Ignacio Rivera

Although throughout this book I am most frequently using the term "demon" to describe what we need to transform, think also about your gods, your obsessive longings. Consider that our hopes and desires can be as problematic as our fears.

You know, everyone here's got some little peccadillo he's hoping to hide.