“All men desire peace, but very few desire those things that make for peace.”
Thomas à Kempis book The Imitation of Christ
Source: The Imitation of Christ
“Few men desire freedom, the greater part desire just masters.”
— Sallust
IV.69.18
Variant translation: Only a few prefer liberty, the majority seek nothing more than fair masters.
Histories
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Sallust21
Roman historian, politician -86–-34 BCRelated quotes
“The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire to receive even greater benefits.”
François de La Rochefoucauld book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
La reconnaissance de la plupart des hommes n'est qu'une secrète envie de recevoir de plus grands bienfaits.
Variant translation: Gratitude is the lively expectation of favours yet to come.
Maxim 298. Compare: "The gratitude of place-expectants is a lively sense of future favours", attributed to Sir Robert Walpole.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
1920s, Marriage and Morals (1929)
“Men go to far greater lengths to avoid what they fear than to obtain what they desire.”
Dan Brown book The Da Vinci Code
Source: The Da Vinci Code
Khalil Gibran book Jesus, The Son of Man
A Man From Lebanon: Nineteen Centuries Afterward
Jesus, The Son of Man (1928)
Context: Master, Master Poet,
Master of our silent desires,
The heart of the world quivers with the throbbing of your heart,
But it burns not with your song.
The world sits listening to your voice in tranquil delight,
But it rises not from its seat
To scale the ridges of your hills.
Man would dream your dream but he would not wake to your dawn
Which is his greater dream.
He would see with your vision,
But he would not drag his heavy feet to your throne.
Yet many have been enthroned in your name
And mitred with your power,
And have turned your golden visit
Into crowns for their head and sceptres for their hand.
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