“Desire is creation, is the magical element in that process. If there were an instrument by which to measure desire, one could foretell achievement.”

— Willa Cather , book The Professor's House

Book I, Ch. 1
The Professor's House (1925)

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Willa Cather 99

American writer and novelist 1873–1947

Harold Chestnut (1917–2001) American engineer

Harold Chestnut (1984) in: Lawrence P. Grayson, Joseph M. Biedenbach eds. Engineering--images for the future": proceedings, 1983 Annual Conference. p. 923

“People write or speak sentences in order to produce an effect, and the success of a sentence is measured by the degree to which the desired effect has been achieved.”

Stanley Fish (1938) American academic

Source: How To Write A Sentence And How To Read One (2011), Chapter 4, What Is A Good Sentence?, p. 37

“Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

“Man is a creation of desire, not a creation of need.”

Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962) French writer and philosopher

The Psychoanalysis of Fire, ch. 2, "Fire and Reverie" (1938)

“Rather than being a measure and consequence of the power of naturally occurring sexual desire, pornography is a measure of the extent to which people tend to prefer controlling desire through contrivance rather than being surprised by desire that spontaneously arises.”

Stephen Mitchell (1946–2000) American psychologist

Can Love Last? (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002), p. 137

“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

“We must also point out that it is precisely the metaphysical element of painting that provokes the creation of a physical substance that corresponds to its necessities, a material that permits the metaphysical element to manifest itself in the painted form it desires.”

Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978) Italian artist

Quote from De Cirico's text 'A DISCOURSE ON THE MATERIAL SUBSTANCE OF PAINT', 1942 http://www.fondazionedechirico.org/wp-content/uploads/541-547Metafisica5_6.pdf, p. 542
1920s and later

“To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to, achieve.”

James Allen book As a Man Thinketh

As A Man Thinketh (1902), Visions and Ideals
Source: As a Man Thinketh
Context: To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to, achieve. Shall man's basest desires receive the fullest measure of gratification, and his purest aspirations starve for lack of sustenance? Such is not the Law: such a condition of things can never obtain: "ask and receive."
Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.

“It is not possible to foretell the reaction of certain elements in the Army and Navy.”

Yoshijirō Umezu (1882–1949) Japanese general

Quoted in "The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb" - Page 107 - by Dennis Wainstock - History - 1996.

“The greatest achievements of men, were at first, nothing but dreams of the minds of men who knew that dreams are the seedlings of all achievements. A burning desire, to be and to do, is the starting point, from which the dreamer must take off”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

The Science of Personal Achievement (Audio - Nightingale-Conant).

“Desire is creation, is the magical element in that process. If there were an instrument by which to measure desire, one could foretell achievement.”

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