“At the root of all misery is unfulfilled desire.”

Source: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

1950s, What Desires Are Politically Important? (1950)
Context: Killing an enemy in a modern war is a very expensive operation... It is obvious that modern war is not good business from a financial point of view. Although we won both the world wars, we should now be much richer if they had not occured. If men were actuated by self-interest, which they are not – except in the case of a few saints – the whole human race would cooperate. There would be no more wars, no more armies, no more navies, no more atom bombs. There would not be armies of propagandists employed in poisoning the minds of Nation A against Nation B, and reciprocally of Nation B against Nation A. There would not be armies of officials at frontiers to prevent the entry of foreign books and foreign ideas, however excellent in themselves. There would not be customs barriers to ensure the existence of many small enterprises where one big enterprise would be more economic. All this would happen very quickly if men desired their own happiness as ardently as they desired the misery of their neighbors. But, you will tell me, what is the use of these utopian dreams? Moralists will see to it that we do not become wholly selfish, and until we do the millennium will be impossible.

Source: The Law of Success (1928), p. 109
Variant: Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.
As quoted in Quote-A-Quote: To Your Success Health Wealth & Happiness (2005) by Michael E. Ruge, p. 38
Context: Strong, deeply rooted desire is the starting point of all achievement. Just as the electron is the last unit of matter discernible to the scientist. DESIRE is the seed of all achievement; the starting place, back of which there is nothing, or at least there is nothing of which we have any knowledge.

From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.

The Transhumanism Handbook, 2019

[Swami Tapasyananda, Swami Nikhilananda, Sri Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother; Life and Conversations, 369]