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Desire Quotes by Famous Authors

1. “What a magnificent body, how I should like to see it on the dissecting table.”

Ivan Turgenev

Desire, Body, Science, Curiosity, Physicality

2. “I want everything or nothing. A life for a life, taking one and giving up another without hesitation and beyond recall. Or else better have nothing!”

Ivan Turgenev

Desire, Extremes, Life, Passion, All-or-Nothing

3. “Like a beetle tied by the leg, I hovered incessantly around the beloved wing; I believe I would have liked to remain there forever... but that was impossible.”

Ivan Turgenev

Love, Obsession, Desire, Restraint, Loss

4. “Eten, drinken en weten dat je niet juister en verstandiger kunt handelen. Maar nee, de verveling wordt je te machtig. Je wilt mensen hebben, al was het maar om ze uit te schelden, maar je wilt mensen hebben.”

Ivan Turgenev

Loneliness, Boredom, Humanity, Interaction, Desire

5. “Beware of the love of women; beware of that ecstasy – that slow poison.”

Ivan Turgenev

Love, Temptation, Danger, Desire, Warning

6. “Like all women who have not succeeded in loving, she wanted something, without herself knowing what. Strictly speaking, she wanted nothing; but it seemed to her that she wanted everything.”

Ivan Turgenev

Desire, Emptiness, Love, Confusion, Longing

7. “Pretty little feet,′ she thought as she slowly and lightly mounted the stone steps of the terrace which were scorching in the sun. ‘Pretty little feet, you say... Well, before long he shall be kneeling at them.”

Ivan Turgenev

Desire, Vanity, Power Dynamics, Feminine Charm, Anticipation

8. “Men chase by night those they will not greet by day.”

Camille Paglia

Men, Relationships, Desire, Behavior, Gender

9. “Men know they are sexual exiles. They wander the earth seeking satisfaction, craving and despising, never content. There is nothing in that anguished motion for women to envy.”

Camille Paglia

Men, Sexuality, Desire, Exile, Contentment

10. “Pursuit and seduction are the essence of sexuality. It’s part of the sizzle.”

Camille Paglia

Sexuality, Desire, Relationships, Philosophy, Culture

11. “How much money does it take to make a man happy? Just one more dollar.”

John D. Rockefeller

Money, Happiness, Greed, Contentment, Desire

12. “Every act you have ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something.”

Andrew Carnegie

Desire, Motivation, Action, Psychology, Ambition

13. “Our appetites, of one or another kind, are excellent spurs to our reason, which might otherwise but feebly set about the great ends of preserving and continuing the species.”

Charles Lamb

Desire, Reason, Motivation, Survival, Nature

14. “My motto is: Contented with little, yet wishing for more.”

Charles Lamb

Contentment, Desire, Life, Balance, Motto

15. “How I like to be liked, and what I do to be liked!”

Charles Lamb

16. “I’d like to grow very old as slowly as possible.”

Charles Lamb

Aging, Time, Life, Desire, Reflection

17. “Woman is born for love, and it is impossible to turn her from seeking it.”

Margaret Fuller

Love, Woman, Nature, Desire, Devotion

18. “Our desires, once realized, haunt us again less readily.”

Margaret Fuller

Desire, Realization, Regret, Reflection, Contentment

19. “You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?”

Steven Wright

Desire, Humor, Life, Possessions, Space

20. “It's OKAY to want to be left alone, yet not want to be lonely.”

Ankur Warikoo

Solitude, Loneliness, Balance, Self-care, Desire

21. “Problem is that you want everything tomorrow.”

Ankur Warikoo

Patience, Desire, Timing, Realism, Effort

22. “You will never get distracted by something you do not desire.”

Ankur Warikoo

Distraction, Desire, Focus, Clarity, Intention

23. “We crave novelty, yet settle for a one-career life.”

Ankur Warikoo

Novelty, Career, Choice, Desire, Conformity

24. “You won’t get out of laziness for something you don’t want to do.”

Ankur Warikoo

Laziness, Desire, Motivation, Action, Purpose

25. “Our problems are the stories we tell ourselves of how everything will be fine once we get what we want.”

Ankur Warikoo

Problems, Stories, Mindset, Desire, Self-talk

26. “If we do not know what we truly want from life the most, at that point of time, the next best thing that we want is EVERYTHING!”

Ankur Warikoo

Desire, Clarity, Purpose, Ambition, Self-awareness

27. “You say: "I want to do whatever I want to do." "I want to live life the way I want to." But then you desire what others get out of their life, by living life differently.”

Ankur Warikoo

Freedom, Desire, Contradiction, Authenticity, Comparison

28. “We all love more money. We just don't know why!”

Ankur Warikoo

Money, Desire, Purpose, Clarity, Motivation

29. “When we disguise our desires as our needs, we almost always end up making a mistake.”

Ankur Warikoo

Desire, Need, Clarity, Decision-making, Mistake

30. “The secret of successful retailing is to give your customers what they want.”

Sam Walton

Retail, Success, Customers, Desire, Service

31. “If you take someone who lacks the experience and the know-how but has the real desire and the willingness to work his tail off to get the job done, he’ll make up for what he lacks. And that proved true nine times out of ten.”

Sam Walton

Effort, Desire, Experience, Work, Success

32. “And so my satisfactions had only been brothel satisfactions, which hadn’t been satisfactions at all.”

V.S. Naipaul

Desire, Emptiness, Illusion, Regret, Experience

33. “Confronted with her, I shed old fantasies. My body obeyed its new impulses, discovered in itself resources that answered my new need.”

V.S. Naipaul

Desire, Transformation, Change, Discovery, Experience

34. “The truth is that you cannot attain God if you have even a trace of desire. Subtle is the way of dharma. If you are trying to thread a needle, you will not succeed if the thread has even a slight fiber sticking out.”

Ramakrishna

Desire, Truth, Dharma, God, Precision

35. “One cannot completely get rid of the six passions: lust, anger, greed, and the like. Therefore one should direct them to God. If you must have desire and greed, then you should desire love of God and be greedy to attain Him.”

Ramakrishna

Passions, Desire, Spirituality, Devotion, Control

36. “It is not lust alone that one should be afraid of in the life of the world. There is also anger. Anger arises when obstacles are placed in the way of desire.”

Ramakrishna

Anger, Desire, Self-Control, Wisdom, Spirituality

37. “Do not be small minded. Do not pray for gourds and pumpkins from God, when you should be asking for pure love and pure knowledge to dawn within every heart.”

Ramakrishna

Desire, Spirituality, Knowledge, Love, Perspective

38. “Lust weakens both body and mind.”

Pythagoras

Desire, Weakness, Discipline, Control, Wisdom

39. “Practice restraint over the following: appetite, first, as well as sleep, lust, and anger.”

Pythagoras

Restraint, Discipline, Control, Desire, Moderation

40. “By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich.”

Democritus

Contentment, Wealth, Simplicity, Desire, Perspective

41. “Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man.”

Democritus

Desire, Maturity, Self-control, Wisdom, Discipline

42. “It is hard to fight desire; but to control it is the sign of a reasonable man.”

Democritus

Desire, Control, Reason, Discipline, Strength

43. “If your desires are not great, a little will seem much to you; for small appetite makes poverty equivalent to wealth.”

Democritus

Desire, Contentment, Simplicity, Wealth, Perspective

44. “Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.”

Democritus

Goodness, Morality, Ethics, Desire, Purity

45. “Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.”

Democritus

Pleasure, Moderation, Pain, Consequence, Desire

46. “Oh, what a world full of pain we create, for a little taste upon the tongue.”

Plutarch

Desire, Consequences, Regret, Greed, Suffering

47. “So inconsiderable a thing is fortune in respect of human nature, and so insufficient to give content to a covetous mind, that an empire of that mighty extent and sway could not satisfy the ambition of two men.”

Plutarch

Greed, Ambition, Contentment, Power, Desire