Quotes about want
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“[R]eciprocity is barter. I always understood that barter was the last effort of civilization that it was exactly that state of human exchange that separated civilization from savagery; and if reciprocity is only barter, I fear that would hardly help us out of our difficulty. ... [W]hen he taunts me with his quotation of some musty phrases of mine 40 years ago, I must remind him that we had elements then on which treaties of reciprocity could be negotiated. At that time, although the great changes of Sir Robert Peel had taken place, there were 168 articles in the tariff which were materials by which you could have negotiated, if that was a wise and desirable policy, commercial treaties of reciprocity. What is the number you now have in the tariff? Twenty-two. Those who talk of negotiating treaties of reciprocity...have they the materials for negotiating treaties of reciprocity? You have lost the opportunity. I do not want to enter into the argument at the present moment; but England cannot pursue that policy.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Source: Speech in the House of Lords on the agricultural depression (29 April 1879), reported in The Times (30 April 1879), p. 8

Time, Help, Effort, Fear

“Why settle for what is provided instead of being motivated to achieve what you want. Complacency is your contentment.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1987

Motivation

“Cats aren't special advisers. They advise us all the time, whether we want them to or no.”

Tamora Pierce (1954) American writer of fantasy novels for children

Veralidaine "Daine" Sarrasri

Cats, Time

“I don't want to tell my dreams, I want to show them!”

Cristiano Ronaldo (1985) Portuguese association football player

“My formula for greatness in a human being is … that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity.
Not merely bear what is necessary, …but love it.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Ecce homo

Source: Ecce Homo, chapter Why I Am So Clever

“I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific.”

Lily Tomlin (1939) American actress, comedian, writer, and producer

Motivational, Funny, Success, Life

“My parents took my ambitions seriously. They took an hour each way to training. They were waiting for me, and when I wanted to go home alone, I took the bus from Warsaw to Leszno for two hours. When I was late, I had to seize an opportunity, sometimes someone took pity and took me away.”

Robert Lewandowski (1988) Polish association football player

Home, Waiting, Way, Parent

“I score so many goals, this means a lot. I know I will always be a little bit behind and I have to maybe work harder than those players for my country if we want to achieve something. It’s not an easy job for me, but I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid. It’s a big chance.”

Robert Lewandowski (1988) Polish association football player

Chance, Country

“The world hates a hypocrite. You cannot want a safe, secure, moral environment for White children, then act like you had no idea what the word noble means.”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

Drugs and Governments
Focus Fourteen

Hate, Children, World, Idea

“I am afraid to die sometimes, but God is the one to decide when a person dies. I want to live to the fullest until then.”

Ahmad Shah Massoud (1953–2001) Afghan military leader

As quoted in Massoud's Smile https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FBR8V8YWEAI9OWu?format=jpg, by Hiromi Nagakura

God, Personality

“The biggest battle than all the world wars put together is when the mind wants something while the body craves for something else as well.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

War, World

“You are living for the sake of love and your life is not free from wanting more love or pleasure to yourself.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Pleasure, Life, Love

“Having defeated your enemy you have to choose (unless you want another war within a generation) between exterminating him and treating him generously.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

Source: "As I Please," Tribune, (24 December 1943)

War

“Fire wants to burn
Water wants to flow
Air wants to rise
Earth wants to bind
Chaos wants to devour
-Iyana Sharpe”

isharpe001

Water

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc.

A comment he made in persuading John Sculley to become Apple's CEO, as quoted in Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple: A Journey of Adventure, Ideas, and the Future (1987) by John Sculley and John A. Byrne
1980s

Life, World, Water, Change

“You look at the hands, not at the face, if you want to stay out of trouble.”

Franco Battiato (1945) Italian singer-songwriter, composer, and filmmaker

Source: da Strani giorni

“You may think you’ve got a long way to go, but you need to look back at how far you’ve already come. You may not be everything you want to be but atleast you can thank God that you’re not what you used to be.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

God, Way, Thinking

“If I have to 'catch' a man to get a husband, I don't want one.”

Tamora Pierce book Shatterglass

Source: Shatterglass

“The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.”

Ben Stein (1944) actor, writer, commentator, lawyer, teacher, humorist

As quoted in Out of the Blue: Delight Comes Into Our Lives (1996) by Mark Victor Hansen, Barbara Nichols, and Patty Hansen, p. 85

Cute, Life

“You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

“That's how I always want to remember my time with you. Like a pure white light, breathtaking to behold.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Light, Time

“You look at me, you look at me closely, each time closer and then we play cyclops, we look at each other closer each time and our eyes grow, they grow closer, they overlap and the cyclops look at each other, breathing confusion, their mouths find each other and fight warmly, biting with their lips, resting their tongues lightly on their teeth, playing in their caverns where the heavy air comes and goes with the scent of an old perfume and silence. Then my hands want to hide in your hair, slowly stroke the depth of your hair while we kiss with mouths full of flowers or fish, of living movements, of dark fragrance. And if we bite each other, the pain is sweet, and if we drown in a short and terrible surge of breath, that instant death is beauty. And there is a single saliva and a single flavour of ripe fruit, and I can feel you shiver against me like a moon on the water.”

Julio Cortázar (1914–1984) Argentinian writer

Death, Pain, Beauty, Feeling

“… I want those perfect eyes and lips, and for everyone to look at me and gasp. And for everyone who sees me to think Who's that? and want to get to know me, and listen to what I say."
"I'd rather have something to say.”

Scott Westerfeld book Uglies

Source: Uglies

Thinking, Perfection

“I guess my life hasn’t always been happy, or easy, or exactly what I want. At a certain point, I just have to try not to think too much about certain things, or else they’ll break my heart.”

Jonathan Franzen (1959) novelist

Life, Thinking, Heart, Happiness

“I want you any way I can get you. Not because you’re beautiful or clever or kind or adorable, although devil knows you’re all those things. I want you because there’s no one else like you, and I don’t ever want to start a day without seeing you.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Tempt Me at Twilight

Beauty, Way

“The light is too painful for someone who wants to remain in darkness.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Pain, Light

“I do my best to please everybody, far more than they'd ever guess. I try to laugh it all off, because I don't want to let them see my trouble.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

“I do not want to be admired. I want to give, to be given, and solitude in which to unfold my possessions.”

Virginia Woolf book The Waves

Source: The Waves

Solitude

“One can not understand language because language cannot understand itself; does not want to understand”

Novalis (1772–1801) German poet and writer

Understanding

“Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be? What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!”

Arthur Miller book Death of a Salesman

Biff
Source: Death of a Salesman (1949)

Fools, Waiting

“I don't want to fall. All I want to do is stand on solid ground.”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

“Cats have it all - admiration, an endless sleep, and company only when they want it.”

Rod McKuen (1933–2015) American poet, songwriter, composer, and singer

Cats, Sleep

“Faithful:Alanna sighed. "When I want to stop learning, I guess.”

Tamora Pierce Lioness Rampant

Source: Lioness Rampant

Learning

“I want to be inside your darkest everything”

Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) Mexican painter

Source: The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait

“Who'd want a pony when you could have the whole universe? It was far more interesting and you didn't have to muck it out once a week.”

Terry Pratchett book Nation

Source: Nation

Universe

“It’s impossible to go through life unscathed. Nor should you want to. By the hurts we accumulate, we measure both our follies and our accomplishments.”

Christopher Paolini book Inheritance

Variant: It's impossible to go through life unscathed. Nor should you want to. By the hurts we accumulate, we measure both our follies and our accomplishments.
Source: Inheritance (2011)

Life, Feeling, Hurt

“He would have liked to know that somebody wanted to keep him alive, that someone remembered him. He used to say that we exist as long as somebody remembers us.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Source: The Shadow of the Wind

“If you want anything done right you will have to see to it yourself every time.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 5, p. 75 : thoughts of 'Mattie Ross'

Time

“I want to perceive and understand the hidden powers and laws of things, in order to have them in my power.”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

Law, Understanding

“Question for God every morning:

What is the main event today? What do you want me to focus on today?”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

God, Question

“I love you. I worry about you. I wonder whether I tell you enough how I love you and want you and need you and how I am diminished… when you are not with me and how I am multiplied when you are here.”

Pat Frank book Alas, Babylon

Source: Alas, Babylon

Love

“The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position.”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

People, World

“You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Variant: You are a wonderful creation. You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Thinking

“There are some people you like immediately, some whom you think you might learn to like in the fullness of time, and some that you simply want to push away from you with a sharp stick.”

Douglas Adams The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

Source: The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

People, Thinking, Learning, Time

“I should have learned this, she thought. I wanted to learn fire, and pain, but I should have learned people.”

Terry Pratchett book I Shall Wear Midnight

Source: I Shall Wear Midnight

Pain, People, Learning

“Many people would claim that the boundary conditions are not part of physics but belong to metaphysics or religion. They would claim that nature had complete freedom to start the universe off any way it wanted.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

"The Quantum State of the Universe", Nuclear Physics (1984) 
Context: Many people would claim that the boundary conditions are not part of physics but belong to metaphysics or religion. They would claim that nature had complete freedom to start the universe off any way it wanted. That may be so, but it could also have made it evolve in a completely arbitrary and random manner. Yet all the evidence is that it evolves in a regular way according to certain laws. It would therefore seem reasonable to suppose that there are also laws governing the boundary conditions.

People, Religion, Way, Nature

“To act—that is true wisdom. I can be what I want to be, but I have to want whatever it is. Success consists in being successful, not in having the potential for success.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

Wisdom, Success

“I knew I would always want to go on living with myself, however hollow I became, however diseased.”

John Fowles book The Magus

Daniel Martin (1977)
Source: The Magus
Context: I saw that I was from now on, for ever, contemptible. I had been and remained, intensely depressed, but I had also been, and always would be, intensely false; in existentialist terms, inauthentic. I knew I would never kill myself, I knew I would always want to go on living with myself, however hollow I became, however diseased.

Disease

“I'm not straight, and I'm not gay. I'm not bisexual. I want out of the labels. I don't want my whole life crammed into a single word. A story. I want to find something else, unknowable, some place to be that's not on the map. A real adventure.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Variant: I want out of the labels. I don't want my whole life crammed into a single word. A story. I want to find something else, unknowable, some place to be that's not on the map. A real adventure.'
A spinx. A mystery. A blank. Unknown. Undefined.
Source: Invisible Monsters

Life

“Oh. I see. People don't want to see what can't possibly exist.”

Terry Pratchett book Mort

Source: Mort

People