Quotes about desire
page 39

“Behind of the words a silent ocean of desires
and a coiled knowledge lies in wait,
listen a restless voice in our heart endlessly urging us onward to break the limits of fear and to embrace of our longing.”

alexis karpouzos

Fear, Knowledge, Waiting, Heart

“Enjoy eternal peace! When the Budhi is enlightened, every man comes to know his own defects and merits. Like one's reflection in the mirror, the various desires of the mind will be visible to Budhi.”

Bhagawan Nityananda (1897–1961) Hindu guru and saint

282
The Chidakasha Gita (1927)

Peace

“I love being engaged, but I don’t really have a desire to get married, I always felt like marriage should be more of a reward… For surviving your relationship… I feel everyone’s got it backwards”

Liv Tyler (1977) American actress, producer and former model

Liv Tyler is the October cover https://www.tatler.com/article/liv-tyler-october-2019-cover-star (August 30, 2019)

Love, Marriage, Making love, Feeling

“IN a free‐enterprise, private‐property system, a corporate executive is an employe of the owners of the business. He has direct responsibility to his employers. That responsibility is to conduct the business in accordance with their desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of the society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom. Of course, in some cases his employers may have a different objective. A group of persons might establish a corporation for an eleemosynary purpose—for example, a hospital or school. The manager of such a corporation will not have money profit as his objective but the rendering of certain services. In either case, the key point is that, in his capacity as a corporate executive, the manager is the agent of the individuals who own the corporation or establish the eleemosynary institution, and his primary responsibility is to them.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

“A Friedman doctrine‐- The Social Responsibility Of Business Is to Increase Its Profits” (Sept. 1970)

Money, Making love, School, Law

“The herdist instinct is furthermore not only personal, in the sense that it clamors for a personal collectivism; it creates also a longing and desire for the visual or acoustic contemplation of identitarian or uniformistic phenomena. The true herdist, the man truly dominated by that inferior instinct, will not only rejoice in marching amongst twenty thousand uniformly clad soldiers, all stepping rhythmically in one direction, but he will find an almost equal gratification in contemplating the show from a balcony. He will not only be happy in sitting amidst two hundred other bespectacled businessmen, drinking beer and humming one chant in unison, but the aspect of a skyscraper with a thousand identical windows will probably impress him more than a picture by Botticelli or Zurbarán.”

Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (1909–1999) Austrian noble and political theorist

Pg 16
The Menace of the Herd (1943)

Happiness, Drink, Beer, Sense

“And the day of physical adventure is over. The day of the bold Phoenician, the fearless trader who with his caravan threaded his way into unknown lands; the day when the early English merchant-sailor trusted and risked his fortune in one small boat, and sought out markets and trading points in undiscovered corners of the earth—these days are gone for ever. The earth has all been "discovered," its lands and peoples are known, and its oceans charted. The merchant who desires to transact business abroad has at his call every detail of information regarding every country, island, or people.”

Harry Gordon Selfridge (1858–1947) America born English businessman

The Romance of Commerce (1918), A Representative Business of the Twentieth Century

People, Way, Business, Country

“Justice is not natural among people, but the struggle for justice is the most noble act in society. Because justice may not be possible, but as it’s the way toward the desired society for each one to live in, that’s why its struggle is noble and regard as the highest act.”

Zaman Ali (1993) Pakistani philosopher

Source: https://books.google.com.pk/books?id=co3AzQEACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%22Zaman+Ali%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjVi-2e57jtAhWToVwKHUj0D3kQ6AEwAnoECAEQAg

People, Justice, Way, Nature

“Each of us can contribute, though. With our votes, our voices, our food choices, our skills and our dollars. We must overhaul both corporate practices and government policies. We must transform culture. Building community around solutions is the most important thing. I am never going to give up working to protect and restore this magnificent planet. Every bit of habitat we preserve, every tenth of a degree of warming we prevent, really does matter. Thankfully, I'm not motivated by hope, but rather a desire to be useful.”

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (1980) American marine biologist and policy expert

Source: A love story for the coral reef crisis https://www.ted.com/talks/ayana_elizabeth_johnson_a_love_story_for_the_coral_reef_crisis (April 2019)

Food, Hope, Communication, Motivation

“She is all peace, all quiet,
All passionate desires, the eloquent thunder
Of new, glad suns, shouting aloud for joy,
Over fresh worlds and clean, trampling the air
Like stooping hawks, to the long wind of horns,
Flung from the bastions of Eternity...
And she is the low lake, drowsy and gentle,
And good words spoken from the tongues of friends,
And calmness in the evening, and deep thoughts,
Falling like dreams from the stars' solemn mouths.
All these.”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Source: Young Adventure (1918), The Lover in Hell

World, Peace, Dreams, Star

“The iron ice stung like a goad,
Slashing the torn shoes from my feet,
And all the air was bitter sleet. And all the land was cramped with snow,
Steel-strong and fierce and glimmering wan,
Like pale plains of obsidian.
— And yet I strove — and I was fire
And ice — and fire and ice were one
In one vast hunger of desire.”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Source: Young Adventure (1918), The Quality of Courage

Hunger, Shoe, Strong

“In conclusion, let me emphasize one point: that we are determined, as a nation in 1961 that freedom shall survive and succeed--and whatever the peril and set-backs, we have some very large advantages. The first is the simple fact that we are on the side of liberty--and since the beginning of history, and particularly since the end of the Second World War, liberty has been winning out all over the globe. A second great asset is that we are not alone. We have friends and allies all over the world who share our devotion to freedom. [...] A third asset is our desire for peace. It is sincere, and I believe the world knows it. [...] Yet it is important to know that our patience at the bargaining table is nearly inexhaustible, though our credulity is limited-that our hopes for peace are unfailing, while our determination to protect our security is resolute.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: 1961, Speech to Special Joint Session of Congress

War, World, Peace, Hope

“It is a most important decision that we make as a nation. But all of you have lived through the last four years and have seen the significance of space and the adventures in space, and no one can predict with certainty what the ultimate meaning will be of mastery of space. I believe we should go to the moon. But I think every citizen of this country as well as the Members of the Congress should consider the matter carefully in making their judgment, to which we have given attention over many weeks and months, because it is a heavy burden, and there is no sense in agreeing or desiring that the United States take an affirmative position in outer space, unless we are prepared to do the work and bear the burdens to make it successful. If we are not, we should decide today and this year.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: 1961, Speech to Special Joint Session of Congress

Making love, Thinking, Decision, Sense

“The hurricane that has swept us away is so strange & new a phenomenon that we shall not for some time understand its real meaning. ... It seems to me to be inspired by some definite desire for change: & means business. It may disappear as rapidly as it came: or it may be the beginning of a serious war of classes. Gladstone is doing all he can to give it the latter meaning.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Source: Letter to Arthur Balfour after the Conservative defeat in the general election (10 April 1880), quoted in Salisbury–Balfour Correspondence, ed. Robin Harcourt Williams (1988), p. 40

War, Understanding, Business, Change

“The main burden of local defense against local attack, subversion, insurrection or guerrilla warfare must of necessity rest with local forces. Where these forces have the necessary will and capacity to cope with such threats, our intervention is rarely necessary or helpful. Where the will is present and only capacity is lacking, our Military Assistance Program can be of help. But this program, like economic assistance, needs a new emphasis. It cannot be extended without regard to the social, political and military reforms essential to internal respect and stability. The equipment and training provided must be tailored to legitimate local needs and to our own foreign and military policies, not to our supply of military stocks or a local leader's desire for military display. And military assistance can, in addition to its military purposes, make a contribution to economic progress, as do our own Army Engineers.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: 1961, Speech to Special Joint Session of Congress

Making love, Help, Training

“Love is a practical desire for the good of another. It is much easier to talk about than to carry into action because it requires such sensitivity and unselfishness.”

Wendy Beckett (1930–2018) British Catholic nun and presenter of documentaries for the BBC on the history of art

Source: Sister Wendy Beckett, from a The Telegraph interview titled 'Culture Clinic: Sister Wendy Beckett' dated 8 May 2009.

Love, Making love

“Famous old houses seem to have an intuitive perception of the value of corner lots. If it is a possible thing, they always set themselves down on the most desirable spot.”

Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907) American poet, novelist, editor

Source: An Old Town by the Sea (1893), Ch. IV. "A Stroll about Town (continued)", p. 44

Housing

“There are many measures of legislative and administrative importance which in themselves would be desirable and which in other circumstances I should have recommended to the immediate attention of the electorate. But I do not feel that they can, at this moment, claim precedence over the nation's first need, which is, in every walk of life, to get on with its work with the minimum of interference at home and of disturbance abroad.”

Bonar Law (1858–1923) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Election manifesto (4 November 1922), quoted in Robert Blake, The Unknown Prime Minister: The Life and Times of Andrew Bonar Law, 1858–1923 (1955), p. 466

Life, Feeling, Home

“I fear to accept anything from anybody lest my heart should start cherishing love for that person. I desire only to live in His thoughts.”

Sufyan al-Thawri (716–778) Muslim Scholar and founder of Thawri Madhhab

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 29

Love, Fear, Making love, Heart

“If you like to be saint of God, then desire not the things of this world or the next. Empty yourself for God. Turn your face to Him so that He may turn to you and make you His saint.”

Ibrahim ibn Adham (718–776) ascetic Sufi saint

p. 26

God, World, Making love

“The night dresses us with magic, leaving us free to dream, travel, interpret everything with the depth of our soul. The power of thought and will transform desire into reality.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) La notte ci veste di magia, lasciandoci liberi di sognare, viaggiare, interpretare tutto con la profondità della propria anima. La forza del pensiero e di volontà, trasforma il desiderio in realtà.
Source: prevale.net

Dreams, Travel, Soul, Reality

“The power of thought and will transform desire into reality.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) La forza del pensiero e di volontà trasforma il desiderio in realtà.
Source: prevale.net

Reality

“At night I compose thoughts and desires that describe moments of profound freedom. Infinite moments to live with you.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) La notte compongo pensieri e desideri che descrivono attimi di profonda libertà. Attimi infiniti da vivere con te.
Source: prevale.net

Freedom, Night

“Radio, a job for those who have deep passion in the soul and desire to share emotions.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) La radio, un lavoro per chi ha profonda passione nell'anima e voglia di condividere emozioni.
Source: prevale.net

Soul, Passion

“There are two possible ways to solving a dilemma, in justice or elsewhere; begin with the facts, and follow out their logic where it leads one, or begin with the desired outcome, and reason backward to the necessary steps to achieve it.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (2012), Chapter 24 (p. 527)

Justice, Way

“The soul completely dominated by its desire for spiritual instruction is never sated.It is because of this that Wisdom says of herself, 'Those who eat Me will still be hungry' (Eccles. 24:21); while the Lord, who has instilled this divine desire in the soul, says of Mary who chose 'what is best' that it will not be taken away from her (cf. Luke 10:42).”

Gregory Palamas (1296–1359) Monk and archbishop

Source: To the Most Reverend Nun Xenia (c. 1344), p. 295

Wisdom, Soul

“I have only one goal and one desire, namely to give myself a practical instruction, to get to know the world and its inhabitants. There will come times when this knowledge will be of use to me.”

Leopold II of Belgium (1835–1909) King of the Belgians

https://klara.be/leopold-ii-aflevering-1-0 Prince Leopold II on his second wedding trip in a letter to his father Leopold I of Belgium in 1854.

World, Knowledge, Time

“In art, immorality cannot exist. Art is always sacred even when it takes for a subject the worst excesses of desire; since it has in view only the sincerity of observation, it cannot debase itself. A true work of art is always noble, even when it translates the stirrings of the brute, for at that moment, the artist who has produced it had as his only objective, the most conscientious rendering possible of the impression he has felt.”

Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) French sculptor

Albert Edward Elsen (1985). The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin. p. 131
1930s and later

Art, Sincerity

“I am certain that a solution of the general problem of peace must rest on broad and basic understanding on the part of its peoples. Great single endeavors like a League of Nations, a United Nations, and undertakings of that character, are of great importance and in fact absolutely necessary, but they must be treated as steps toward the desired end.”

George Marshall (1880–1959) US military leader, Army Chief of Staff

Essentials to Peace (1953)

People, Peace, Understanding, Problem

“The metaphysics that a new generation is imbibing and everyone else is being force-fed has many points of instability, is grounded in a desire to express certainty about things we do not know, and to be wildly dismissive and relativistic about things that we actually do know.”

Douglas Murray (1979) British political commentator and far-right activist

The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity (2019)

“If somebody has the competency to do something, and the desire to do something, then nothing about their race, sex or sexual orientation should hold them back. But minimizing difference is not the same as pretending difference does not exist. To assume that sex, sexuality and skin colour mean nothing would be ridiculous. But to assume that they mean everything will be fatal.”

Douglas Murray (1979) British political commentator and far-right activist

The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity (2019)

Sex

“There is a never-ending struggle against the need for the state to be strong enough to be functional and to have a civilized society, and at the same time, its desire to crush those who stand in the way.”

David Cay Johnston (1948) Investigative journalist and author

David Cay Johnston; How The One Percent Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (Jun 23, 2009)

Way, Strong, Time

“The essence of all religions is the recognition of an Authority higher, more comprehensive, more permanent than the human being. The characteristic of Christian teaching, however, is the faith that this Supreme Authority is beneficent as well as powerful. The Christian believes that the Creative Force is a moral force, of more comprehensive morality than the human being that it creates. Under the symbol of a wise and loving parent—the most just, efficient, and attractive image that we know of—we are encouraged to regard this unseen Authority as being in direct relation with every atom of creation, and as desirous of drawing each atom into progressively higher forms of existence.”

Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910) England-born American physician, abolitionist, women's rights activist

[Elizabeth Blackwell, Essays in Medical Sociology, https://books.google.com/books?id=7VlHAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=religions&f=false, 1, 1899, Library Reprints, Incorporated, 978-0-7222-1823-5]
Essays in Medical Sociology (1899)

Love, Making love, Faith, Religion

“We don't deliberately desire to scare anybody - we design our creatures to fit in harmony with the story and, of course, our forte is the grotesque. That's why our films were classified so many times as horror films, which they weren't. I would call a war film a horror film because in those you see guts split and people being slaughtered, but our films deal with fantasy and are more theatrical than realistic.”

Ray Harryhausen (1920–2013) American animator

Harryhausen on Horror

War, People, Time

“Today’s fashion magazines may carry an article about the dangers of anorexia while bombarding its readers with images of emaciated young bodies representing the height of beauty and desirability.”

Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist

As quoted in Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics (2014), p.34

Beauty, Fashion

“God has filled our hearts with desires so vast and so magnificent that nothing in creation is capable of satisfying them. Thus it is that in the hope of finding some pleasure, we attach ourselves to created objects and that we have no sooner possessed and sampled that which we have so ardently desired than we turn to something else, hoping to find what we wanted. We are, then, through our own experience, constrained to admit that it is but useless for us to want to derive our happiness here below from transient things. If we hope to have any consolation in this world, it will only be by despising the things which are passing and which have no lasting value and in striving towards the noble and happy end for which God has created us. Do you want to be happy, my friends? Fix your eyes on Heaven; it is there that your hearts will find that which will satisfy them completely.”

John Vianney (1786–1859) French priest and saint

Do You Want to Be Happy?

God, Happiness, Pleasure, World

“One that desires to excel should endeavour in those things that are in themselves most excellent.”

Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece

“Here is one quality that one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Knowledge

“Ideals are an imaginative understanding of that which is desirable in that which is possible.”

Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American journalist

Imagination, Understanding

“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Personality

“The desire to vanquish faults because it is "I" who have them is ineffectual, since it falls within the same category as the faults themselves. Indeed, every fault is a form of egoism or even pride. We must tend towards Perfection because we understand it and therefore love it, and not because we desire that our ego should be perfect. In other terms, we must love and realize a virtue because it is true and beautiful, and not because it would become us if we possessed it; and we must hate and fight against a fault because it is false and ugly, and not because it is ours and because it disfigures us. To possess a virtue is first and foremost to be without the fault which is contrary to it, for God created us virtuous. He created us in His image; faults are superimposed. Moreover it is not we who possess virtue, it is virtue which possesses us.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 65, 978-1-93659700-0]
Spiritual path, Virtue

Love, God, Hate, Beauty

“People often have trouble finding lasting satisfaction from worldly rewards, because as soon as we acquire something, our desire resets and we are looking to the next reward.”

Arthur C. Brooks (1964) American policy analyst and musician

" Stop Keeping Score, https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/01/checklist-achievements-happiness-boxes/617756/" The Atlantic (21 January 2021)

People

“The utilitarian doctrine is, that happiness is desirable, and the only thing desirable, as an end; all other things being only desirable as means to that end.”

John Stuart Mill book Utilitarianism

Source: Utilitarianism (1861), Ch. 4

Happiness

“I warmly second the advice of the wisest of men—"Don't be ambitious; don't be at all too desirous to success; be loyal and modest."”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

Cut down the proud towering thoughts that you get into you, or see they be pure as well as high. There is a nobler ambition than the gaining of all California would be, or the getting of all the suffrages that are on the planet just now.
1860s, On The Choice Of Books (1866)

Men, Success

“Thinking, waiting and distance from a woman increase the desire to have her by your side.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

From the Quotes http://www.prevale.net/quotes.html page of the official website of Prevale <br class="br">Original: (it) Il pensiero, l'attesa e la distanza da una donna aumentano il desiderio di averla al tuo fianco. <br class="br">Source: prevale.net

Thinking, Waiting

“Every human thought passes at the moment of its development into the external world, where it becomes an active being … Consequently, a person continuously inhabits the path he traverses in world space with a multitude of images representing child of his fantasies, desires, aspirations and passions.”

Pierre Piobb (1874–1942) French ophthalmologist (1874-1942)

Source: Book Ancient Higher Magic

World, Passion, Personality

“It is better to die of hunger than to receive aid and be compelled to do things that are contrary to God's desire.”

Polycarp Pengo (1944) Catholic cardinal

Tanzanian cardinal: Reject ideological colonization through foreign aid https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/40079/tanzanian-cardinal-reject-ideological-colonization-through-foreign-aid (December 5, 2018)

Hunger, God

“You will succeed when the desire to do it will be equal to the need to breathe.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Riuscirai quando la voglia di farcela sarà pari alla necessità di respirare.
Source: prevale.net

“True love is based on unshakable trust and a constant and unbridled desire to want each other in everyday life.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Il vero amore si basa su una fiducia incrollabile ed un desiderio costante e sfrenato di volersi l'un l'altro nella vita di tutti i giorni.
Source: prevale.net

Love, Life

“Thinking, waiting and distance from a woman increase the desire to have her by your side.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Thinking, Waiting

“When someone is moved by apostolic zeal, he always moves forward, with a very open spirit, with the desire of always doing good. The Lord then does the rest.”

Ruggero Franceschini (1939) Italian Roman Catholic archbishop

Bishop Padovese laid to rest in Italy https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/19989/bishop-padovese-laid-to-rest-in-italy (June 15, 2010)

“To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.”

Samuel Johnson The Rambler

No. 68 (10 November 1750)
The Rambler (1750–1752)

Happiness, Home

“Mean spirits, you whose only measure of value is gold, I have no desire to touch your treasures, however impure may have been the source of them.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

On Property (24 April 1793)

“I have no other desire than to leave Belgium bigger, stronger and more beautiful.”

Leopold II of Belgium (1835–1909) King of the Belgians

Pierre Vercauteren: A king unjustly maligned. (Page 18) https://www.memoiresducongo.be/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Leo2-Vercauteren.pdf Leopold II on the evening of his accession in 1865 confided to the baron Lambermont. Léopold II, Count Louis de Lichtervelde (p.55). <br class="br">Quotes related to Belgium

Beauty

“Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us thy humble home;
Rise, the woman's conquering Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent's head. . . .
Adam's likeness, Lord, efface;
Stamp thine image in its place.
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in thy love.”

Charles Wesley (1707–1788) English Methodist and hymn writer

"Hymn for Christmas-Day"
Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739)

Love, Home

“One thing great journalists and artists have in common is a desire to be surprised, to find yourself with way more than you bargained for when you began an inquiry with little more than a sense of intuition.”

An-My Lê (1960) American photographer

Interview with the Art Newspaper (August 13, 2020)

Way, Sense

“Gay people should be protected by law and not discriminated against, [homosexuality] is a natural human desire, not an illness.”

Zhiar Ali (1999) Kurdish human rights activist and artist

Ali on discrimination against gay people in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Source: [هاوڕەگەزخوازیی لە كوردستان؛ حەزێكی سروشتیی بێ پشت و پەنا, http://www.peregraf.com/ku/report/2186/هاوڕەگەزخوازیی-لە-كوردستان؛-حەزێكی-سروشتیی-بێ-پشت-و-پەنا, پەرەگراف, May 10, 2021, ku]

People, Law, Nature

“As a filmmaker, I really am most interested in humans and their deep desire to connect to each other. How do they get through their own lives? Where have I come and where am I now? And where do I want to go from here? It’s all of those humanistic questions.”

Lynn Shelton (1965–2020) American film director, screenwriter, film editor, actress and film producer (1965-2020)

Cinema76 - Interview with Sword of Trust Director Lynn Shelton - 16 July 2019 https://www.cinema76.com/home/2019/7/16/interview-with-sword-of-trust-director-lynn-shelton - Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20210727191014/https://www.cinema76.com/home/2019/7/16/interview-with-sword-of-trust-director-lynn-shelton

Question

“God, at the beginning, created two human beings, from whom the whole multitude of the human race has descended; and thus it is not the equity of nature, but the ambition of evil desire, which has given rise to worldly nobility.”

Sulpicius Severus (360–420) Christian writer and historian and native of Aquitania (c. 363-c. 425)

"Take Heed that Ye Love not Human Glory in any Respect," A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. 11, p. 66

God, Nature, Evil

“We all desire to live with dignity in a sovereign, democratic, and law-abiding state, one that everybody - regardless of their worldviews and ideological and political diversity - can consider their own.”

Tadeusz Mazowiecki (1927–2013) Polish politician and prime minister

"Inaugural address of Premier Tadeusz Mazowiecki" https://polishfreedom.pl/en/document/statement-inaugural-address-of-the-prime-minister-tadeusz-mazowiecki-delivered-at-the-seym-session-on-12th-september-1989 (12 September 1989)

Law

“The most important thing is that we would like people to reach some kind of mutual understanding, so that these huge mixed nationalities, religions, social order, finally understand each other, if possible ... And then everything would fall into place, and there are no more desires would not be.”

Viktor Tsoi (1962–1990) Soviet rock musician (1962-1990)

"Appendix I. Viktor Tsoi: interview diary" https://ik-ptz.ru/en/istoriya/prilozhenie-i-viktor-coi-dnevnik-intervyu-fragmenty-iz-odnoimennoi.html

People, Religion, Understanding

“Tonight I have no desire to sleep. / I want to remain here until morning / writing poetry. / The heart drowns less slowly / when the pen sheds tears / and the paper dries pain.”

Menotti Lerro (1980) Italian poet

Source: The Poetry of Menotti Lerro, p. 55

Pain, Tear, Sleep, Heart

“I want to follow the instinct, the passion of my desire, once unspeakable. The moments of love serve to remind us that our condition tends to happiness!”

Menotti Lerro (1980) Italian poet

Donna Giovanna, Act I, scene iii.
Theater Quotes

Love, Happiness, Passion

“If it is traumatising to follow the same lecture every week, then what makes it desirable to sit in the same place daily?”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“It is all beautiful, at first, to put health before everything, but you will come to realise that it is foolish if you base all of your life on this single desire.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Life, Health, Beauty

“Love is the lowest desire; because even animals understand the meaning of love and what it means to be loved.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Love, Understanding, Animals

“We are now living in the generation of bodybuilders, rather than walking amongst of those who are ready, or well prepared to conquer their daily desires.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“: You can desire something only if you wish to possess it in the end. Therefore, love is a possession!”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Love

“Since you cannot live without desires, therefore it is impossible to run away from realisations too.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“The beauty of living is found in having different opinions, tastes and desires.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Beauty

“The ego can be found in the heart, which in turn is the mother of all desires.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Heart

“The power to think is fuelled by the greatness of your desires.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Thinking

“A people desirous to preserve their freedom cannot be too jealous in watching the encroachment of a centralizing spirit.”

William Smith O'Brien (1803–1864) Irish nationalist politician (1803-1864)

p. 20 https://books.google.com/books?id=4VUBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA20 <br class="br">Principles of Government: Or Meditations in Exile (1856), Chapter II. On Centralized and Local Administration

People, Freedom

“Maybe it’s because women feel they want to maintain some mystery that they’re not gross, to be more attractive or something. For me it’s all part of intimacy. That’s how I define intimacy – living closer and being more honest, closer to what your real desires are – and it’s exciting.”

Ali Wong (1982) American actress, comedian, and writer

On her views as to why women are reluctant to talk intimately about their bodies in “'God, I was disgusting!' – Ali Wong on why women's bodies are the last taboo” https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/oct/17/god-i-was-disgusting-ali-wong-on-why-womens-bodies-are-the-last-taboo in The Guardian (2019 Oct 17)

Women, Feeling, Parting

“The word "interview" is written as taking material. If you come in contact with it like you want to take such material, it will be transmitted. So, instead of taking material, you are I think it's all about listening with the desire to know and listen to your story.”

Miri Yu (1968) Zainichi Korean writer

As quoted in "For those who have no place to live" A story spun by Miri Yu" in Teller Report (17 December 2020) https://www.tellerreport.com/life/2020-12-17-%0A---%22for-those-who-have-no-place-to-live%22-a-story-spun-by-miri-yu-%0A--.B1br_RudnD.html

Thinking

“Remain detached from desire.”

Miyamoto Musashi book Dokkōdō

Dokkodo

“One does not attain everything he wishes for.
Winds blow counter to what the ships desire.”

Al-Mutanabbi (915–965) Arabic poet from the Abbasid era

From the poem Bima At-Taʿallulu http://www.almotanabbi.com/poemPage.do?poemId=272

“The urge to control others is very strong, but the desire for freedom and the ability to show compassion will always survive. Darkness is everywhere, but the Light still appears.”

John Twelve Hawks book The Traveler

Source: Fourth Realm Trilogy (2005-2009), The Traveler (2005), Ch. 26

Freedom, Light, Strong, Appearance

“Having too many choices produces psychological distress, especially when combined with regret, concern about status, adaptation, social comparison, and perhaps most important, the desire to have the best of everything—to maximize.”

Barry Schwartz book The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

The Paradox of Choice (2004)

“A thousand creeds and battle-cries,
A thousand warring social schemes,
A thousand new moralities,
And twenty thousand thousand dreams!

Each on his own anarchic way,
From the old order breaking free, —
Our ruined world desires, you say,
License, once more, not Liberty.”

Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) English poet

Forward
The Lord of Misrule and Other Poems (1915)

War, World, Dreams, Way

“How should I behave in the place where I live? Have the mentality of an exile in the place where you live, do not desire to be listened to and you will have peace.”

Poemen (340–450) Egyptian monk and desert father

Source: Saying 191

Peace

“Softly! Softly! I want none but the judges to hear me. The Jews have already gotten me into a fine mess, as they have many other gentleman. I have no desire to furnish further grist for their mills.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

Oration in Defense of Flaccus. See Apostle Paul: A Polite Bribe https://books.google.com.br/books?id=wefkDwAAQBAJ&pg=108 by Robert Orlando, p. 108.

“When the Taliban took power in Afghanistan I took interest and had a desire to travel there.”

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith (1965) One of Al-Qaeda's official spokesmen

Source: Kronos US v Sulaiman Abu Ghayth Statement https://kronosadvisory.com/Kronos_US_v_Sulaiman_Abu_Ghayth_Statement.1.pdf (1st March 2013)

Travel

“Some people, because their minds have gone so long without nourishment, lose their desire to eat and so do not notice the harm they are suffering.”

Gregory Palamas (1296–1359) Monk and archbishop

Source: The Parables of Jesus: Sermons by Saint Gregory Palamas

People, Suffering

“Famine means being deprived of and desiring necessary food. But there is something worse and more wretched than this famine: when someone is deprived of the necessary means of salvation and does not perceive his misfortune, having no desire to be saved.”

Gregory Palamas (1296–1359) Monk and archbishop

Source: The Parables of Jesus: Sermons by Saint Gregory Palamas

Food

“You cannot have a greater desire to conform Ireland to the Church of England, than I (and this with as seeming great a desire of the King) to conform Scotland to the Church of England.”

William Laud (1573–1645) Archbishop of Canterbury

Source: Letter to Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (8 October 1638), quoted in The Works of the Most Reverend Father in God, William Laud, sometime Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. Volume VII—Letters (1860), p. 489

“The universal desire among awakened Christians to love God and man is part of the law constantly operating through man when he finds his right relation to God.”

Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) American mystic

Source: Mysteries Of John (1946)

Love, God, Law, Universe

“All growth and unfoldment from atom to sun is based upon this law of soul urge. What you earnestly desire and persistently affirm will be yours, if you "faint not."”

Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) American mystic

Source: Teach Us to Pray with Cora Fillmore (1941)

Law, Soul, Sun

“Using siddhis (powers) is not good for those who possess them. It can also trap the mind into desires. By being pure in mind siddhis will come by itself, and a yogi should not try to show his powers. First thing is to have siddhis and then not to get trapped in siddhis.”

Baba Hari Dass (1923–2018) master yogi, author, builder, commentator of Indian spiritual tradition

Source: The Yellow Book (1974), p.42

“If the knowledge of foreign languages is particularly useful in our time, that of national languages is a necessity. It is necessary to have them taught to the youth simultaneously, and it is to be desired that their use should become more and more common to all Belgians.”

Leopold II of Belgium (1835–1909) King of the Belgians

Source: J. Steur, Netherlands. Volume 63 Article from 1959. Quoted from J. Vuylsteke, "Flemish Belgium since 1830: Studies and sketches collected by the general board of the Willemsfonds on the occasion of the Jubilee Year 1905", Willemsfonds, 1905, p. 222. https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_nee003195901_01/_nee003195901_01_0114.php King Leopold II and the Queen are invited by the mayor of Brussels, Karel Buls, to attend the first performance in the renovated Flemish theatre, where he gives a speech in Flemish. This was followed by thunderous applause such as 'Long live our Flemish King!'

Youth, Knowledge, Time

“[T]he basic decisions are... about aims... what is desirable... the greater good or the lesser evil in the case of conflicting aims... what sacrifice we are willing to make for a certain achievement, and at what point the sacrifice outweighs the advantages.”

Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant

Source: 1930s- 1950s, The Future of Industrial Man (1942), p. 120

Decision, Evil

“Why dost thou not pray... to give thee the faculty of not fearing any of the things which thou fearest, or of not desiring any of the things which thou desirest, or not being pained at anything, rather than pray that any of these things should not happen or happen?”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book IX, 40

Pain, Fear

“The Method tends to be linear, almost like a 19th century mechanistic way of thinking in its search for a cause that produces the desired effect.”

Giovanni Morassutti (1980) Italian actor, theatre director and cultural entrepreneur.

From the essay Strasberg Legacy

Way, Search, Thinking

“My burning desire is to lead my generation into the very act of worship, worshiping the Lord in spirit and in truth.”

Tope Alabi (1970) Nigerian Gospel artist

https://quotes.ng/mobile/author.php?title=tope-alabi&id=1290

Truth

“Through love we're slain, the world's our slaughter house
We've no food nor sleep, the world's our cookhouse.
We've no desire for paradise, because
Our hell's a hundred times loftier than that.”

Abu Sa'id Abu'l-Khayr (967–1049) poet

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 97

Love, World, Food, Hell

“Sophistry is one of the methods by which politicians dress up their policies in alien clothing, to pass them off as more desirable than they really are. Spin doctors thrive best where ‘democracy’ is the slogan.”

Catherine Rowett (1956) Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia (born 1956)

Source: Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2004), Ch. 7 : Spin doctors of the 5th century

Democracy, Clothes

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”

book Bible

Source: Proverbs 13:12

Life, Hope, Tree, Heart

“Few desire to know the truth of what is happening in our state’s abortion clinics. All of the outrage, all of the noise is directed at one thing: silencing the uncomfortable truth. It’s either willful ignorance or a decision to partner with the abortion industry. When I started in public office, I was intellectually pro-life, but now I have come to see that the life issue is truly the issue of our time. The depth of evil that exists to protect this lie prevents the states from protecting children. How we determine the answer to this issue is what will determine where our nation will end up. Unless the truth prevails, abortion will destroy us as a nation.”

Phill Kline (1959) American politician

Source: Ask the Attorney: An Interview with Former Kansas Attorney General and Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline http://lifelegalgiving.com/ask-the-attorney-an-interview-with-former-kansas-attorney-general-and-johnson-county-district-attorney-phill-kline/ (1 August 2009)

Life, Children, Truth, Lie