The Bible
Old Testament: Proverbs ch.13 v.19
The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul.
Blake William 1757-1827
Milton [preface]
Bring me my bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my spear: O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire.
Blake William 1757-1827
Note-book
What is it men in women do require?
The lineaments of gratified desire.
What is it women do in men require?
The lineaments of gratified desire.
Boorstin Daniel J.
The deeper problems connected with advertising come less fromthe unscrupulousness of our ‘deceivers' than from our pleasure in
being deceived; less from the desire to seduce than from the desire to be seduced.
Boothroyd Betty
My desire to get here (Parliament) was like miners coal dust; it was under my fingers and I couldn't scrub it out.
Branden Nathaniel
For the rational, psychologically healthy man, the desire for pleasure is the desire to celebrate his control over reality. For the neurotic, the
desire for pleasure is the desire to escape from reality.
Burns Robert 1759-1796
Gie me a spark o' nature's fire,
That's a' the learning I desire.
Butler Samuel 1835-1902
Notebooks
All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
Chesterton G.K. 1874-1936
The Ballad of the White Horse
I tell you naught for your comfort,
Yea, naught for your desire,
Save that the sky grows darker yet
And the sea rises higher.
Coleridge Samuel Taylor 1772-1834
Table Talk
The man's desire is for the woman; but the woman's desire
is rarely other than for the desire of the man.
Dostoevsky Fedor 1821-1881
Who doesn't desire his father's death?
Eliot George 1819-1880
To be right in great and memorable moments is perhaps
the thing we should most desire for ourselves.
Fielding Henry 1707-1754
Tom Jones
What is commonly called love, namely the desire of satisfying a voracious
appetite with a certain quantity of delicate white human flesh.
Goethe Johann von 1749-1832
From desire I plunge to its fulfillment, where I
long once more for desire.
Joyce James 1882-1941
„The Holy Office"
My little love in light attire
Knows the soft flame that is desire.
Kant Immanuel 1724-1804
The desire of a man for a woman is not directed at her because she is a human being, but because she is woman. That she a human being is of no concern to him.
Lewis C.S. 1898-1963
Unsatisfied desire is in itself more desirable than any other satisfaction.
Petronius d. AD 65
Delight of lust is gross and brief
And weariness treads on desire.
Proust Marcel 1871-1922
Guermantes Way
There is nothing like desire for preventing the things one says from bearing any resemblance to what one has in one's mind.
Proverbs and Sayings
Medieval
All men naturally desire to know.
Ralegh Sir Walter 1552-1618
‘Conceit begotten by the Eyes'
Desire, nor reason hath, nor rest,
And blind doth seldom choose the best.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Henry IV, Part 2
Don't it not show vilely in me to desire small beer?
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Henry IV, Part 2
Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?
Shaw George Bernard 1856-1950
Man and Superman
There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's
desire. The other is to gain it.
Terence c. 190-159 BC
I know the nature of women;
When you want to, they don't want to;
And when you don't want to, they desire exceedingly.
Tocqueville Alexis de 1805-1859
L'Ancien régime
Despots themselves do not deny that freedom is excellent; only they desire it for themselves alone, and they maintain that everyone else
is altogether unworthy of it.
Yutang Lin 1895-1976
All women's dresses are merely variations on the eternal struggle between the admitted desire to dress and the unadmitted desire to undress.
Blake William 1757-1827
He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.
The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, General Confession
We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have
followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.
Drayton Michael 1563-1631
The Barons' Wars
Thus when we fondly flatter our desires,
Our best conceits do prove the greatest liars.
George Henry 1839-1897
Man is the only animal whose desires increase as they are fed; the only animal that is never satisfied.
Greene Robert c.1560-1592
„The Shepherd's Wife's Song"
Ah! what is love! It is a pretty thing,
As sweet unto a shepherd as a king,
And sweeter too;
For kings have cares that wait upon a crown,
And cares can make the sweetest love to frown.
Ah then, ah then,
If country loves such sweet desires do gain,
What lady would not love a shepherd swain?
Lamartine Alphonse de 1790-1869
Limited in his nature, infinite in his desires, man is a fallen god who remembers heaven.
Mann Thomas 1875-1955
The Confessions of Felix Krull
Our capacity for disgust, let me observe, is in proportion of our
desires; that is in proportion to the intensity of our attachment
to the things of this world.
Mill John Stuart 1806-1873
On Liberty
Liberty consists in doing what one desires.
Proust Marcel 1871-1922
There can be no peace of mind in love, since the advantage one has secured is never anything but a fresh starting-point for further desires.
Proverbs and Sayings
Medieval
Nature always desires what is better.