“Sometimes we seek that which we are not yet ready to find.”

Quoted in James Fadiman and Robert Frager, eds., Essential Sufism (Castle Books, 1998, ISBN 0-7858-0906-6, p. 37.
Quoted earlier in " Translations of Eastern Poetry and Prose https://archive.org/stream/translationsofea00nich#page/140/mode/2up/search/impossible" by RA Nicholson (p.140) (Macmillan, 1922)

Source: The Way of Kings

(1st July 1826) Moralising
The London Literary Gazette, 1826

"A Book That Influenced Me"
Two Cheers for Democracy (1951)

Source: I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau

Fragment No. 1; Variant: We seek the absolute everywhere and only ever find things.
Blüthenstaub (1798)

Fate
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)

Recreation (1919)
Context: It is sometimes said that this is a pleasure-seeking age. Whether it be a pleasure-seeking age or not, I doubt whether it is a pleasure-finding age. We are supposed to have great advantages in many ways over our predecessors. There is, on the whole, less poverty and more wealth. There are supposed to be more opportunities for enjoyment: there are moving pictures, motor-cars, and many other things which are now considered means of enjoyment and which our ancestors did not possess, but I do not judge from what I read in the newspapers that there is more content. Indeed, we seem to be living in an age of discontent. It seems to be rather on the increase than otherwise and is a subject of general complaint. If so it is worth while considering what it is that makes people happy, what they can do to make themselves happy, and it is from that point of view that I wish to speak on recreation.