Desire Quotes - Page 39

• To be faithful to your instincts and the impulses that carry you in the direction of the excellence you most desire and value ... surely that is to lead the noble life.

  George Edward Woodberry

  Faithful, Excellence, Noble

  George Edward Woodberry (1933). “Selected letters of George Edward Woodberry”

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• He acts without contact, instructs without meeting, guides without pointing. Desires do not conflict with Him, thoughts do not mingle with Him: His essence is without qualification (takyeef), His action without effort (takleef).

  Mansur Al-Hallaj

  Essence, Effort, Action

  "Doctrine of Sufis". Book by Muhammed Al-Kalabadhi, translated by A.J. Arberry. Chapter 5, p. 16, 1977.

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• You never put off until tomorrow or even this afternoon what you can do this morning. Attack the objective when your desire is strongest.

  Sheilah Graham Westbrook

  Morning, Afternoon, Action

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• We can trace back our existence almost to a point. Former time presents us with trains of thoughts gradually diminishing to nothing. But our ideas of futurity are perpetually expanding. Our desires and our hopes, even when modified by our fears, seem to grasp at immensity. This alone would be sufficient to prove the progressiveness of our nature, and that this little earth is but a point from which we start toward a perfection of being.

  Humphry Davy

  Train Of Thought, Ideas, Perfection

  "emoirs of the Life of Sir Humphry Davy". Book by John Davy, p. 130, 1836.

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• The earliest desire of succeeding is almost always a prognostic of success.

  Stanisław I Leszczyński

  Success, Succeed

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• There appears to exist a greater desire to live long than to live well! Measure by man's desires, he cannot live long enough; measure by his good deeds, and he has not lived long enough; measure by his evil deeds, and he has lived too long.

  Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann

  Life, Men, Long

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• . . . this life is a perpetual chequer-work of good and evil, pleasure and pain. When in possession of what we desire, we are only so much the nearer losing it; and when at a distance from it, we live in expectation of enjoying it again.

  Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sevigne

  Pain, Distance, Evil

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• The desire to be singular and to astonish by ways out of the common seems to me to be the source of many virtues.

  Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sevigne

  Way, Common, Virtue

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• It is characteristic of the barbarian ... to insist upon seeing a thing "as it is." The desire testifies that he has nothing in himself with which to spiritualize it; the relation is one of thing to thing without the intercession of the imagination. Impatient of the veiling with which the man of higher type gives the world imaginative meaning, the barbarian and the Philistine, who is the barbarian living amid culture, demands the access of immediacy. Where the former wishes representation, the latter insists upon starkness of materiality, suspecting rightly that forms will mean restraint.

  Richard M. Weaver

  Mean, Men, Giving

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• The case of the Baconians is not won until it has been proved that the substitution of covetousness for wantlessness, or an ascending spiral of desires for a stable requirement of necessities, leads to a happier condition.

  Richard M. Weaver

  Ascending, Requirements, Spirals

  Richard M. Weaver (2013). “Ideas Have Consequences: Expanded Edition”, p.13, University of Chicago Press

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• Every new generation in its hour of dawn, filled with the dreams of youth, its thirsts, intoxications and enthusiasms, thinks itself called upon to impel humanity towards heights unmeasured, believes itself an appointed pathfinder, a thinker of thoughts, a doer of deeds greater than any of those which came before. Every new generation desires beauty, but a beauty all its own.

  Ignacy Jan Paderewski

  Dream, Believe, Thinking

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• The desire not to be impinged upon, to be left to oneself, has been the markof high civilisation both on the part of individuals and communities.

  Isaiah Berlin

  Community, Individual, Civilisation

  1959 Four Essays on Liberty.

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• There is a saying in Tibetan that "at the door of the miserable rich man sleeps the contented beggar". The point of this saying is not that poverty is a virtue, but that happiness does not come with wealth, but from setting limits to one's desires, and living within those limits with satisfaction.

  Dalai Lama

  Sleep, Men, Doors

  "Your Emotional Fitness: Everything You Need to Know to Live a Life of Abundance". Book by Gary Rubin, p. 173, 2013.

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• If there are sound reasons or bases for the points you demand, then there is no need for violence. On the other hand, when there is no sound reason that concessions should be made to you but mainly your own desire, then reason cannot work and you have to rely on force. Thus using force is not a sign of strength but rather a sign of weakness.

  Dalai Lama

  Hands, Violence, Weakness

  "The Dalai Lama: A Policy of Kindness". Book edited by Sidney Piburn. "The Nobel Evening Address" p. 115, 1990.

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• Heart's-ease is a flower which blooms from the grave of desire.

  William Rounseville Alger

  Flower, Heart, Ease

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• Forgetfulness is not to be purchased with a wish; and I cannot bestow my esteem on all who desire it, unless they deserve it too.

  Anne Bronte

  Wish, Forgetfulness, Esteem

  Anne Bronte (2006). “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall”, p.86, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• It seemed to me at an early age that all human communication - whether it's TV, movies, or books - begins with somebody wanting to tell a story. That need to tell, to plug into a universal socket, is probably one of our grandest desires. And the need to hear stories, to live lives other than our own for even the briefest moment, is the key to the magic that was born in our bones.

  Robert R. McCammon

  Live Life, Book, Communication

  Robert R. McCammon (2011). “Boy's Life”, p.44, Open Road Media

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• At the heart of the mystery of corruption lies the desire of one man to impose his will on others to the largest possible extent.

  Robert Payne

  Lying, Heart, Men

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

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• The creator does not create only for the pleasure of creating but . . . he also desires to subdue other minds.

  Beatrice M. Hinkle

  Creating, Mind, Doe

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• it is a curious fact, but one which all experience owns, that people do not desire so much to appear better, as to appear different from what they really are.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Thinking, People, Different

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1852). “Romance and reality”, p.78

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• Perhaps, from an innate desire of justification, sorrow always exaggerates itself. Memory is quite one of Job's friends; and the past is ever ready to throw its added darkness on the present.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Jobs, Memories, Past

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1831). “Romance and Reality”, p.198

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• The Christian life is a long and continual tendency of our hearts toward that eternal goodness which we desire on earth. All our happiness consists in thirsting for it. Now this thirst is prayer. Ever desire to approach your Creator, and you will never cease to pray. Do not think it necessary to pronounce many words.

  Francois Fenelon

  Christian, Prayer, Heart

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• No more restless uncertainties, no more anxious desires, no more impatience at the place we are in; for it is God who has placed us there, and who holds us in his arms. Can we be unsafe where he has placed us?

  Francois Fenelon

  Arms, Restless, Impatience

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• Commit yourself then to God! He will be your guide. He Himself will travel with you, as we are told He did with the Israelites, to bring them step by step across the desert to the promised land. Ah! what will be your blessedness, if you will but surrender yourself into the hands of God, permitting Him to do whatever He will, not according to your desires, but according to His own good pleasure?

  Francois Fenelon

  Trust, Hands, Land

  Francois Fenelon (2014). “Spiritual Progress”, p.39, Lulu.com

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• No one ever sowed the grain of generosity who gathered not up the harvest of the desire of his heart.

  Saadi

  Heart, Generosity, Harvest

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