quotations about desire
The first set of facts to be adduced against the common sense view of desire are those studied by psycho-analysis. In all human beings, but most markedly in those suffering from hysteria and certain forms of insanity, we find what are called "unconscious" desires, which are commonly regarded as showing self-deception. Most psycho-analysts pay little attention to the analysis of desire, being interested in discovering by observation what it is that people desire, rather than in discovering what actually constitutes desire. I think the strangeness of what they report would be greatly diminished if it were expressed in the language of a behaviourist theory of desire, rather than in the language of every-day beliefs. The general description of the sort of phenomena that bear on our present question is as follows: A person states that his desires are so-and-so, and that it is these desires that inspire his actions; but the outside observer perceives that his actions are such as to realize quite different ends from those which he avows, and that these different ends are such as he might be expected to desire. Generally they are less virtuous than his professed desires, and are therefore less agreeable to profess than these are. It is accordingly supposed that they really exist as desires for ends, but in a subconscious part of the mind, which the patient refuses to admit into consciousness for fear of having to think ill of himself. There are no doubt many cases to which such a supposition is applicable without obvious artificiality. But the deeper the Freudians delve into the underground regions of instinct, the further they travel from anything resembling conscious desire, and the less possible it becomes to believe that only positive self-deception conceals from us that we really wish for things which are abhorrent to our explicit life.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
The Analysis of Mind
Desire, both the whispers and the shouts, is the map we have been given to find the only life worth living.
JOHN ELDREDGE
Desire
The desire that is satisfied is not a great desire, nor has the shoulder used all its might that an unbreakable gate has never strained.
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
"Anima Hominis", Per Amica Silentia Lunae
Women believe -- or at least often pretend to believe -- that all our tenderness for them springs from desire; that we love them when we have not for a time enjoyed them, and dismiss them when we are sated, or to express it more precisely, exhausted. There is no truth in this idea, though it may be made to appear true. When we are rigid with desire, we are apt to pretend a great tenderness in the hope of satisfying that desire; but at no other time are we in fact so liable to treat women brutally, and so unlikely to feel any deep emotion but one.
GENE WOLFE
The Claw of the Conciliator
Love and Desire contended for primacy, "Without me," said Love, "was nothing created." "Nor without me," answered Desire, "was anything begotten." Then Love admitted Desire to his companionship; but, when they walk together, Love always goes first.
RICHARD GARNETT
De Flagello Myrtes
We trifle when we assign limits to our desires, since nature has set none.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
My wants are many, and, if told,
Would muster many a score;
And were each wish a mint of gold,
I still would want for more.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
The Quincy Patriot, Sep. 25, 1841
I'm touched with desire
What don't I do?
I'll throw the logs on the fire
I'll build my world around you
BOB DYLAN
"Beyond the Horizon"
If you have desired your object only for one day, your love perhaps will not last more than three nights.
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
Physiology of Marriage
My thoughts of longing are like the smoke grass,
That grows always in profusion, winter or spring!
LI BAI
"To His Three Friends"
Naked I seek the camp of those who desire nothing.
HORACE
Odes
It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them. How can we ever be satisfied without them until our feelings are deadened?
GEORGE ELIOT
The Mill on the Floss