“Our desires reveal us. They show us for who we really are.”
Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus
Source: The Blood of Olympus
Quotes about desire page 10
“The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.”
Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher
“The cinema substitutes for our gaze a world more in harmony with our desires.”
André Bazin (1918–1958) French film critic
“If you suffer and make your loved ones suffer, there is nothing that can justify your desire.”
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist
Source: The Art of Power
Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Two: Soul and Body, p 56
“Sky and sea, keep harm from me. Earth and fire, bring… my desire.”
L.J. Smith (1965) American author
Source: The Initiation / The Captive Part I
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host
“I see her as a series of marvellous shapes formed at random in the kaleidoscope of desire.”
Angela Carter book The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman
Source: The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman
“I think a woman is born with the desire to hear she is beautiful.”
Ted Dekker (1962) American writer
Source: Blink of an Eye
“It is a desirable thing to be well descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.”
8
Moralia, Of the Training of Children
“Endeavors that help me satisfy you, my goddess of desire, pleasure, and corny one-liners.”
Sylvia Day (1973) American writer
Source: Entwined with You
Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
“Hope is the confusion of the desire for a thing with its probability.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher
Source: Essays and Aphorisms
“Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I accomplish.”
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet
“They parted at last with mutual civility, and possibly a mutual desire of never meeting again.”
Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist
“I desire no future that will break the ties of the past.”
George Eliot book The Mill on the Floss
Source: The Mill on the Floss
“Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules
Passions, desires, and fears, is more a king.”
John Milton (1608–1674) English epic poet
Source: Paradise Regained by John Milton
“Desire followed the glance, pleasure followed desire”
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch book Venus in Furs
Source: Venus in Furs
“What desire can be contrary to nature since it was given to man by nature itself?”
Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher
Source: Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
“He who desires but acts not breeds pestilence.”
William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist
Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), Proverbs of Hell, Line 5
“Some women attract desire. Others do not.”
Philippa Gregory book The Other Boleyn Girl
Source: The Other Boleyn Girl
René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist
Source: The Principles of Philosophy
Irène Némirovsky (1903–1942) French novelist who died at the age of 39 in Auschwitz
Source: Suite Française
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934
“Very often the things we most desire come only after much patience and struggle.”
Richelle Mead (1976) American writer
Source: Succubus Blues
“Profound desire, true desire is the desire to be close to someone.”
Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes
Source: Eleven Minutes
“I regret to say I'm
unable to reply to your unexpressed desires.”
Harryette Mullen (1953) American writer
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Source: The World As I See It
Gabriel Zaid (1934) Mexican writer
Source: So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance
“It happens that I want you, and so I just haven’t room for any other desires.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned
Source: The Beautiful and Damned
“Pain wanders through my bones like a lost fire;
What burns me now? Desire, desire, desire.”
Theodore Roethke book The Far Field
"The Marrow," ll. 11-12
The Far Field (1964)
Anne Morrow Lindbergh book Gift from the Sea
Source: Gift from the Sea (1955)
Context: The shape of my life is, of course, determined by many other things; my background and childhood, my mind and its education, my conscience and its pressures, my heart and its desires. I want to give and take from my children and husband, to share with friends and community, to carry out my obligations to man and to the world, as a woman, as an artist, as a citizen.
But I want first of all — in fact, as an end to these other desires — to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can. I want, in fact — to borrow from the languages of the saints — to live "in grace" as much of the time as possible. I am not using this term in a strictly theological sense. By grace I mean an inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony.
Context: The shape of my life today starts with a family. I have a husband, five children and a home just beyond the suburbs of New York. I have also a craft, writing, and therefore work I want to pursue. The shape of my life is, of course, determined by many other things; my background and childhood, my mind and its education, my conscience and its pressures, my heart and its desires. I want to give and take from my children and husband, to share with friends and community, to carry out my obligations to man and to the world, as a woman, as an artist, as a citizen.
But I want first of all — in fact, as an end to these other desires — to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can. I want, in fact — to borrow from the languages of the saints — to live "in grace" as much of the time as possible. I am not using this term in a strictly theological sense. By grace I mean an inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony. I am seeking perhaps what Socrates asked for in the prayer from Phaedrus when he said, "May the outward and the inward man be at one." I would like to achieve a state of inner spiritual grace from which I could function and give as I was meant to in the eye of God.
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist
Source: god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
“Never let go of that fiery sadness called desire.”
Patti Smith (1946) American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist
Roger Rosenblatt (1940) American writer
Source: Unless It Moves the Human Heart: The Craft and Art of Writing
Kim Edwards book The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Source: The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher
Source: The World as Will and Representation, Vol 1
“Love is desire sustained by unfulfilment.”
Angela Carter (1940–1992) English novelist
Source: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
“andAt the core of this desire is the belief that everything can be perfect.”
David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary
Source: The Lover's Dictionary
“After all, it's woman, who decide, if a man is desirable or undesirable.”
Candace Bushnell book Sex and the City
Source: Sex and the City
James Clavell book Shōgun
Source: Shōgun
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor
