Truth is no harlot who throws her arms round the neck of him who does not desire her; on the contrary, she is so coy a beauty that even the man who sacrifices everything to her can still not be certain of her favors.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Human nature is universally imbued with a desire for liberty, and a hatred for servitude.
—Julius Caesar
There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition.
—Blaise Pascal
By education I mean that training in excellence from youth upward which makes a man passionately desire to be a perfect citizen, and teaches him to rule, and to obey, with justice.
This is the only education which deserves the name.
—Plato
Countless are, as the sand in the sea, the deep desires of men, and none resembles the other, and all of them, whether shameful, or great, in the beginning are obedient, but later become terrible masters over him.
—Nikolai Gogol
Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.
—William Shakespeare
There are four powers: memory and intellect, desire and covetousness. The two first are mental and the others sensual. The three senses sight, hearing, and smell cannot well be prevented; touch and taste not at all.
—Leonardo Da Vinci
I undertook to conquer myself rather than fortune, and to alter my desires rather than change the order of the world, and to accustom myself to believe that nothing is entirely in our power except our own thoughts.
Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I accomplish.
—Michelangelo
Being wealthy isn’t just a question of having lots of money. It’s a question of what we want. Wealth isn’t an absolute, it’s relative to desire. Every time we seek something that we can’t afford, we can be counted as poor, how much money we may actually have.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
—Leonardo Da Vinci
Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.
—Plato
Poverty doesn’t come because of the decrease of wealth but because of the increase of desires.
—Plato
There is in every one of us, even those who seem to be most moderate, a type of desire that is terrible, wild, and lawless.
—Plato
Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.
—Plato
Love is simply the name for the desire and pursuit of the whole.
—Plato
Hope is the desire of the soul to be convinced that the dream will come true.
—René Descartes
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.
—Aristotle
It is of the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.
—Aristotle
All men by nature desire to know.
—Aristotle
O for a love, for burning love
Like fervent flame of fire;
O for a love, for yearning love,
Love that will never tire;
Lord, in my need I appeal to Thee,
Grant me now my heart’s desire.
—Amy Carmichael
Let God be in all your thoughts, and ye will be men indeed. Let him be your God and your All,—the desire of your eyes, the joy of your heart, and your portion for ever.
—John Wesley
It is a petty view of our Father’s love and wisdom which demands or expects an answer according to our desires, apart from His wisdom. We see hardly one inch of the narrow lane of time. To our God eternity lies open as a meadow.
—Amy Carmichael
I don’t think we can ever count on thread being supplied for a pattern He has not planned. Our prayer must be, Protect me from mistaking my desire for Your direction.
—Amy Carmichael
Let me not be governed by frames and feelings but cherish a resolute determination for God and desire to serve him.
—William Wilberforce
Help me O God to desire to do or suffer thy will.
—William Wilberforce
O may I desire to praise God and Christ and present body and soul a reasonable service of sacrifice.
—William Wilberforce
People desire to make God a dead God, in order to be able to deal with him according to their pleasure. But the Holy Scripture calls to man: You have gone astray; God exists. He is the true God; he lives, now and forever.
—Herman Bavinck
Prevenient grace may be simple conviction or a strange longing which nothing can satisfy or powerful aspiration after eternal values or feeling of disgust for sin & desire to be delivered from its repulsive coils. These strange workings within are the stirrings of the Holy Spirit
—A. W. Tozer
It is a mistake to look for grace to visit us as a kind of benign magic, or to expect God’s help to come as a windfall apart from conditions known & met. To desire revival, for instance, and at the same time to neglect prayer & devotion is to wish one way and walk another.
—Tozer