Quotes on Desire

Photography, alone of the arts, seems perfected to serve the desire humans have for a moment - this very moment - to stay.

Author: Sam Abell

Sometimes it's just harder to remind yourself about what you're doing and why you're doing it... Other times, you have a great desire for it, but physically you're not responding the way you want. That presents other challenges. Then sometimes it all comes together.

Author: Andre Agassi

We desire an expansion of relations with regional states and the establishment of extensive public contacts.

Author: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

It's so much better to desire than to have.

Author: Anouk Aimee

The interval between a cold expectation and a warm desire may be filled by expectations of varying degrees of warmth or by desires of varying degrees of coldness.

Author: Samuel Alexander

You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as you dominant aspiration.

Author: James Allen

To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve.

Author: James Allen

Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.

Author: Thomas Aquinas

Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand.

Author: Neil Armstrong

The desire is thy prayers; and if thy desire is without ceasing, thy prayer will also be without ceasing. The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer.

Author: Saint Augustine

Maybe a thing that you do not like is really in your interest. It is possible that a thing that you may desire may be against your interest.

Author: Abu Bakr

The desire for liberty has also made itself felt as struggle against domestic tyranny or arbitrary rule.

Author: Emily Balch

I always feel the desire to look for the extraordinary in ordinary things; to suggest, not to impose, to leave always a slight touch of mystery in my paintings.

Author: Balthus

And out of a desire essentially to imitate what I was reading, I began to write, like a clever monkey.

Author: Russell Banks

Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my words. My language trembles with desire.

Author: Roland Barthes

The true way to gain much, is never to desire to gain too much.

Author: Francis Beaumont

There are two futures, the future of desire and the future of fate, and man's reason has never learned to separate them.

Author: John Bernal

Duty - that which sternly impels us in the direction of profit, along the line of desire.

Author: Ambrose Bierce

I have this desire to keep improving, so I find fault.

Author: Heston Blumenthal

Liars share with those they deceive the desire not to be deceived.

Author: Sissela Bok

And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me.

Author: Anne Boleyn

There was never in my mind a desire to give in on the subject of freeing the political prisoners.

Author: Robert Bourassa

If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.

Author: Louis Brandeis

With European powers no new subjects of difficulty have arisen, and those which were under discussion, although not terminated, do not present a more unfavorable aspect for the future preservation of that good understanding which it has ever been our desire to cultivate.

Author: Martin Buren

Consequently it will often happen there will be a desire of particular objects, in cases where they cannot be obtained without manifest injury to others.

Author: Joseph Butler

I choose not to give energy to the emotions of revenge, hatred or the desire to subjugate.

Author: Rosanne Cash

No matter how old you get, if you can keep the desire to be creative, you're keeping the man-child alive.

Author: John Cassavetes

When we look back, the only things we cherish are those which in some way met our original want; the desire which formed in us in early youth, undirected, and of its own accord.

Author: Willa Cather

Almost every desire a poor man has is a punishable offence.

Author: Louis-Ferdinand Celine

Hard times arouse an instinctive desire for authenticity.

Author: Coco Chanel

Forbid us something, and that thing we desire.

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer

All teenagers have this desire to somehow run away.

Author: Joan Chen

The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.

Author: Gilbert Chesterton

The good thing about getting older is that, as you become less attractive, so you have less desire to go out and conquer everyone you see.

Author: Julian Clary

I used to desire many, many things, but now I have just one desire, and that's to get rid of all my other desires.

Author: John Cleese

The man's desire is for the woman; but the woman's desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man.

Author: Samuel Coleridge

A man's desire is for the woman, but the woman's desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man.

Author: Samuel Coleridge

Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.

Author: Confucius

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.

Author: Confucius

When sages commend excess, Desire is sick.

Author: Mason Cooley

In the street, the gaze of desire is furtive or menacing.

Author: Mason Cooley

Desire increases when fulfillment is postponed.

Author: Pierre Corneille

Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for aesthetic perfection. Its basic elements are logic and intuition, analysis and construction, generality and individuality.

Author: Richard Courant

I've never really had a desire to do Shakespeare. For me, it's just too many lines.

Author: Daniel Craig

This desire for equity must not lead to an excess of welfare, where nobody is responsible for anything.

Author: Jacques Delors

Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.

Author: Democritus

I do not believe in pure idioms. I think there is naturally a desire, for whoever speaks or writes, to sign in an idiomatic, irreplaceable manner.

Author: Jacques Derrida

It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.

Author: Denis Diderot

I had no desire to be an film actress, to always play somebody else, to be always beautiful with somebody constantly straightening out your every eyelash. It was always a big bother to me.

Author: Marlene Dietrich

Not that painting would have been a release. The reason for doing it is the desire to create. I've got to do it! I've seen that, I can still remember it, I've got to paint it.

Author: Otto Dix

We'll all be riding that streetcar of desire.

Author: Robert Dole

Heterosexuality is dangerous. It tempts you to aim at a perfect duality of desire.

Author: Marguerite Duras

Everything is perfect in the universe - even your desire to improve it.

Author: Wayne Dyer

I don't see myself necessarily having a burning desire to write a symphony.

Author: Danny Elfman

I desire no future that will break the ties with the past.

Author: George Eliot

The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.

Author: Ralph Emerson

Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.

Author: Epictetus

If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.

Author: Epictetus

The desire to write grows with writing.

Author: Desiderius Erasmus

But I don't have such a strong desire to need to get away from filmmaking.

Author: Mike Figgis

A memory is a beautiful thing, it's almost a desire that you miss.

Author: Gustave Flaubert

I have heard of novels started in the middle, at the end, written in patches to be joined together later, but I have never felt the slightest desire to do this.

Author: C. Forester

If you greatly desire something, have the guts to stake everything on obtaining it.

Author: Brendan Francis

If you desire many things, many things will seem few.

Author: Benjamin Franklin

It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow.

Author: Benjamin Franklin

All that spirits desire, spirits attain.

Author: Khalil Gibran

Nothing is more consuming, or more illogical, than the desire for remembrance.

Author: Ellen Glasgow

Study with desire is real activity; without desire it is but the semblance and mockery of activity.

Author: William Godwin

It is not only our duty to pray for others, but also to desire the prayers of others for ourselves.

Author: William Gurnall

Desire creates its own object.

Author: Barbara Harrison

Our opponents maintain that we are confronted with insurmountable political obstacles, but that may be said of the smallest obstacle if one has no desire to surmount it.

Author: Theodor Herzl

Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.

Author: Napoleon Hill

It sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.

Author: Eric Hoffer

Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are.

Author: Eric Hoffer

Our course, then, is clear; if we desire to put an end to pauperism, or to lessen it, we should import everything we can use or sell, in order that we may employ our unemployed hands, in making the goods by which we pay for these imports.

Author: Joseph Hume

My characters are driven by a passionate desire for justice. They are rebellious and incorruptible.

Author: Tahar Jelloun

It is my desire to be a great writer. I know that I still have a mountain to climb to achieve that.

Author: Guy Johnson

With this first novel, I am just above the foothills, but I see the path to the top, and it is my desire to write compelling stories about everything that I find of interest.

Author: Guy Johnson

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

Author: Samuel Johnson

It is true not all has been accomplished that the earnest advocates would desire, but a start has been made.

Author: Frank Kellogg

My lord, I have some matter of law relating to the indictment, and I desire counsel to speak to it.

Author: William Kidd

I desire to put off my trial as long as I can till I can get my evidence ready.

Author: William Kidd

It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite.

Author: Soren Kierkegaard

I'm not a collector, however, and I have no desire to own 50 or 60 guitars.

Author: Mark Knopfler

But Pete had the desire to play at the highest level for so many years. That is very difficult, mentally.

Author: Richard Krajicek

Federer can be the best ever; he has the potential. The only question is whether he has the desire.

Author: Richard Krajicek

Freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem.

Author: Jiddu Krishnamurti

I've always had this unresolved desire to prove that I could get a Ph.D., or contribute something else to the world.

Author: Diane Lane

Naturally I drew register a little exaggerated, in order to create something new in the sense of a sublime literature that sings of despair only in order to oppress the reader, and make him desire the good as the remedy.

Author: Comte Lautreamont

My desire to curtail undue freedom of speech extends only to such public areas as restaurants, airports, streets, hotel lobbies, parks, and department stores. Verbal exchanges between consenting adults in private are as of little interest to me as they probably are to them.

Author: Fran Lebowitz

Well, I think just a desire to come back and be a part of the game again.

Author: Mario Lemieux

My head can get to murder and rape for profit because I can understand greed as a human motive, but I cannot understand the voyeuristic desire to watch such a film. I can comprehend one and I cannot comprehend the other.

Author: Donna Leon

Favor and honor sometimes fall more fitly on those who do not desire them.

Author: Titus Livius

I had no desire to crash a man's world.

Author: Ida Lupino

My intention to lecture is as vague as my intention is to go on the stage. I will never consider an offer to lecture, not because I despise the vocation, but because I have no desire to appear on the public rostrum.

Author: Mary MacLane

We have been frustrated that there are a number of incumbents in Maryland offices who have been in office for years and years and show no movement or desire to pass the torch.

Author: John Mahoney

There is no man who desires as passionately as a Russian. If we could imprison a Russian desire beneath a fortress, that fortress would explode.

Author: Joseph Maistre

A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.

Author: Horace Mann

The teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.

Author: Horace Mann

A free and prosperous Iraq will be a major blow to the terrorists and their desire to establish a safe haven in Iraq where they can plan and plot attacks.

Author: Scott McClellan

My desire for the part of Mammy was not dominated by selfishness for Hollywood has been good to me and I am grateful.

Author: Hattie McDaniel

I don't think the players play with the same desire they once did.

Author: Will McDonough

Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.

Author: Michelangelo

I never had any desire to become a well-known actress.

Author: Rebecca Miller

I believe very strongly that when it comes to desire, when it comes to attraction, that things are never black and white, things are very much shades of grey.

Author: Brian Molko

We are the recipients of scientific method. We can each be a creative and active part of it if we so desire.

Author: Kary Mullis

If you desire ease, forsake learning.

Author: Nagarjuna

The desire to annoy no one, to harm no one, can equally well be the sign of a just as of an anxious disposition.

Author: Friedrich Nietzsche

It is widely held that too much wine will dull a man's desire. Indeed it will in a dull man.

Author: John Osborne

Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.

Author: Blaise Pascal

Man never thinks himself happy, but when he enjoys those things which others want or desire.

Author: Alexander Pope

If the desire to write is not accompanied by actual writing, then the desire must be not to write.

Author: Hugh Prather

We do not succeed in changing things according to our desire, but gradually our desire changes.

Author: Marcel Proust

Forbidden pleasures alone are loved immoderately; when lawful, they do not excite desire.

Author: Marcus Quintilian

We always long for the forbidden things, and desire what is denied us.

Author: Francois Rabelais

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

Author: Ayn Rand

You might think that it would he the natural desire of every man to develop as an independent personality, but this does not seem to be true.

Author: Herbert Read

A revolutionary poem will not tell you who or when to kill, what and when to burn, or even how to theorize. It reminds you... where and when and how you are living and might live, it is a wick of desire.

Author: Adrienne Rich

The desire of talking of ourselves, and showing those faults we do not mind having seen, makes up a good part of our sincerity.

Author: Francois Rochefoucauld

The greatest part of intimate confidences proceed from a desire either to be pitied or admired.

Author: Francois Rochefoucauld

A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.

Author: Francois Rochefoucauld

Politeness is a desire to be treated politely, and to be esteemed polite oneself.

Author: Francois Rochefoucauld

Nothing prevents one from appearing natural as the desire to appear natural.

Author: Francois Rochefoucauld

I can score 20 points if I want to, but that's not my desire.

Author: Dennis Rodman

Means must be subsidiary to ends and to our desire for dignity and value.

Author: Ludwig Rohe

Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.

Author: Jim Rohn

Impatience translates itself into a desire to have something immediate done about it all, and, as is generally the case with impatience, resolves itself in the easiest way that lies ready to hand.

Author: Edward Sapir

The desire for security must be balanced with our regard for liberty.

Author: Samuel Schmid

I have no desire to carry a movie.

Author: Amy Sedaris

As far as pleasures, you've got to have limits. You shouldn't have too much of good things, so you'll always have a desire for more and you won't get bored.

Author: Compay Segundo

Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.

Author: Lucius Seneca

Desire nothing, give up all desires and be happy.

Author: Swami Sivananda

Never let go of that fiery sadness called desire.

Author: Patti Smith

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

Author: Socrates

Always desire to learn something useful.

Author: Sophocles

Desire is the very essence of man.

Author: Baruch Spinoza

Desire is the essence of a man.

Author: Baruch Spinoza

The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.

Author: Madame Stael

The reason can give nothing at all Like the response to desire.

Author: Wallace Stevens

I have no desire to be a cat, which walks so lightly that it never creates a disturbance.

Author: Andrew Still

We grow like flowers, and bear desire, The odor of the human flowers.

Author: Richard Stoddard

I'm the last person who has any desire to instruct anybody in shame. That's no errand for me.

Author: Jock Sturges

The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

Author: Tacitus

Boredom: the desire for desires.

Author: Leo Tolstoy

I was interested in telescopes and the way they worked because I had an intense desire to see what things looked like, so I learned how to use telescopes and find things in the sky.

Author: Clyde Tombaugh

My desire is to let go of my ego and let in His direction.

Author: Janine Turner

My desire is to be a forgiving, non-judgmental person.

Author: Janine Turner

Out of need springs desire, and out of desire springs the energy and the will to win.

Author: Denis Waitley

I often think I can see it in myself and in other young writers, this desperate desire to please coupled with a kind of hostility to the reader.

Author: David Wallace

Either you write songs or you don't. And if you do write songs like I do, I think there's a natural desire to want to make records.

Author: Roger Waters