“Ultimately, it is the desire, not the desired, that we love.”
Variant: One loves ultimately one's desires, not the thing desired.
Source: Beyond Good and Evil
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Friedrich Nietzsche655
German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and cl… 1844–1900Related quotes
“Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.”
Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet
As quoted in a review of A Swinger of Birches (1957) by Sydney Cox in Vermont History, Vol. 25 (1957), p. 355
1950s
Umar II (681–720) Umayyad caliph
Quran: Chapter 28, verse 83, quoted in History of the Prophets and Kings, Vol. 24, p. 102
Last Sermon delivered to People, Last Words
William Sharp (writer) (1855–1905) Scottish writer
Desire, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Could it be that to truly love a thing is not to desire it, but to desire happiness for it?”
Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer
Source: The Letter
“Love is a disease which fills you with a desire to be desired.”
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) French painter
Quoted in: Peter McWilliams (1997) Love 101: To Love Oneself Is the Beginning of a Lifelong Romance. p. 23
undated quotes
“I don't want to be loved. I want to be desired. Love is safety, but desire is foul.”
Hanif Kureishi (1954) English playwright, screenwriter, novelist
Source: Something to Tell You
“Love is desire for knowledge.”
Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator
This Business of Living (1935-1950)
“To lose the thing we love is greater pain
Than to desire and never to obtain.”
Francesco Berni (1497–1535) Italian poet
Che lasciar quel che s'ama, e peggio assai
Che disiarlo, e non averlo mai.
XVII, 6
Rifacimento of Orlando Innamorato