Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy
Book 1, Ch 44 (as translated by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella)
Discourses on Livy (1517)
Source: The Adventure of the Dying Detective
Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy
Book 1, Ch 44 (as translated by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella)
Discourses on Livy (1517)
“The miser deprives himself of his treasure because of his desire for it.”
Simone Weil (1909–1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist
Source: Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986), Detachment (1947), p. 260
Grover Cleveland (1837–1908) 22nd and 24th president of the United States
Letter to his brother Rev. William N. Cleveland (7 November 1882); published in The Writings and Speeches of Grover Cleveland (1892), p. 534.
Context: I feel as if it were time for me to write to someone who will believe what I write.
I have been for some time in the atmosphere of certain success, so that I have been sure that I should assume the duties of the high office for which I have been named. I have tried hard, in the light of this fact, to appreciate properly the responsibilities that will rest upon me, and they are much, too much underestimated. But the thought that has troubled me is, can I well perform my duties, and in such a manner as to do some good to the people of the State? I know there is room for it, and I know that I am honest and sincere in my desire to do well; but the question is whether I know enough to accomplish what I desire.
The social life which seems to await me has also been a subject of much anxious thought. I have a notion that I can regulate that very much as I desire; and, if I can, I shall spend very little time in the purely ornamental part of the office. In point of fact, I will tell you, first of all others, the policy I intend to adopt, and that is, to make the matter a business engagement between the people of the State and myself, in which the obligation on my side is to perform the duties assigned me with an eye single to the interest of my employers. I shall have no idea of re-election, or any higher political preferment in my head, but be very thankful and happy I can serve one term as the people's Governor.
“Desire is craving enough to sacrifice for”
Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister
“To subordinate my judgment to his desires was the undoing of me.”
Edwin Lefèvre book Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
Source: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (1923), Chapter XIII, p. 159
William Blake book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
The Voice of the Devil
Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793)
Achille Castiglioni (1918–2002) Italian designers and architect
Achille Castiglioni, 1960 - Lierna (Lago di Como), 1971. Scultore. in: Domus Magazine, Achille Effect, Laura Bossi, 13 April 2010, ( Domusweb online https://www.domusweb.it/en/news/2010/04/13/achille-effect.html)
“To resist, it is not enough to say No – it is necessary to desire!”
Augusto Boal (1931–2009) Brazilian writer
Aesthetics of the Oppressed (2006)
Bobby Sands (1954–1981) Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army
Diary entry, (17 March 1981), translated from the original Irish, in Skylark Sing your Lonely Song : An Anthology of the Writings of Bobby Sands (1991)
Other writings
Context: They won't break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart. The day will dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom to show. It is then we'll see the rising of the moon.