On Desire

‘It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire, and many things to fear.’
— Francis Bacon

‘He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.’
— William Blake

‘We trifle when we assign limits to our desires, since nature hath set none.’
— Christian Bovee

‘If you really want something you can figure out how to make it happen.’
— Cher

‘I have found that ideas come when you have a great desire to find them. The mind becomes a kind of watchtower for any incident that might excite the imagination. Music, a sunset, etc, can germinate an idea.’
— Charlie Chaplin

‘Our chief want in life is somebody who can make us do what we can.’
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

‘Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.’
— Michaelangelo

‘The desire to create continually is vulgar and betrays jealousy, envy, ambition. If one is something one really does not need to make anything—and one nonetheless does very much. There exists above the “productive” man a yet higher species.’
— Friedrich Nietzsche

‘All human activity is prompted by desire.’
— Bertrand Russell

‘Desire is the very essence of man.’
— Benedict de Spinoza

‘There are two tragedies in life. One is not get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it.’
— George Bernard Shaw

‘Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.’
— Voltaire

‘What ardently we wish, we soon believe.’
— Edward Young