---
title: "5 Longing Things Quotes by 5 authors"
description: "Browse 5 Longing Things quotes by 5 authors. Discover the best Longing Things sayings and thoughts."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5f9/c-s-lewis-121_beauty_in-speaking-of-this-desire-for-our-own-f_192777.jpg"
---

> [“In speaking of this desire for our own far off country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-s-lewis-2/in-speaking-of-this-desire-for-our-own-far-off-country-which-we-find/)

[C.S. Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-s-lewis-2/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5f9/c-s-lewis-121_beauty_in-speaking-of-this-desire-for-our-own-f_192777.jpg)

> [The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-books-or-the-music-in-which-we-thought-the-beauty-was-located/)

[Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/936/anonymous-1_beauty_the-books-or-the-music-in-which-we-thoug_400509.jpg)

> [“My heart has a way of moving, only, for those I can never be with.. Longing for things that might only occur…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-adel/my-heart-has-a-way-of-moving-only-for-those-i-can-never-be-with/)

[Sarah Adel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-adel/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b56/sarah-adel-25228_desire_my-heart-has-a-way-of-moving-only-for-th_682591.jpg)

> [“I am a lover of words and tragically beautiful things, poor timing and longing, and all things with soul, and I wonder…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicole-lyons/i-am-a-lover-of-words-and-tragically-beautiful-things-poor-timing-and/)

[Nicole Lyons](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nicole-lyons/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/20c/nicole-lyons-27486_beautiful_i-am-a-lover-of-words-and-tragically-bea_716151.jpg)

> [In our youths, many of us suspected that being tied down to a partner and family might constrain us. But after 40,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sandra-tsing-loh/in-our-youths-many-of-us-suspected-that-being-tied-down-to-a-partner/)

[Sandra Tsing Loh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sandra-tsing-loh/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/563/sandra-tsing-loh-8276_family_in-our-youths-many-of-us-suspected-that_2531295.jpg)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "ItemList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/longing-things/#itemlist",
            "name": "Longing Things Quotes",
            "numberOfItems": 5,
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“In speaking of this desire for our own far off country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness. I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you—the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence; the secret also which pierces with such sweetness that when, in very intimate conversation, the mention of it becomes imminent, we grow awkward and affect to laugh at ourselves; the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though we desire to do both. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience. We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it, and we betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name. Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter. Wordsworth’s expedient was to identify it with certain moments in his own past. But all this is a cheat. If Wordsworth had gone back to those moments in the past, he would not have found the thing itself, but only the reminder of it; what he remembered would turn out to be itself a remembering. The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "C.S. Lewis"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-s-lewis-2/in-speaking-of-this-desire-for-our-own-far-off-country-which-we-find/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5f9/c-s-lewis-121_beauty_in-speaking-of-this-desire-for-our-own-f_192777.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5f9/c-s-lewis-121_beauty_in-speaking-of-this-desire-for-our-own-f_192777.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5f9/c-s-lewis-121_beauty_in-speaking-of-this-desire-for-our-own-f_192777.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“In speaking of this desire for our own far off country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a…” — C.S. Lewis",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them,and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols,breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Anonymous"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-books-or-the-music-in-which-we-thought-the-beauty-was-located/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/936/anonymous-1_beauty_the-books-or-the-music-in-which-we-thoug_400509.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/936/anonymous-1_beauty_the-books-or-the-music-in-which-we-thoug_400509.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/936/anonymous-1_beauty_the-books-or-the-music-in-which-we-thoug_400509.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was…” — Anonymous",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“My heart has a way of moving, only, for those I can never be with.. Longing for things that might only occur in Never-Gonna-Happen-Land. With the passage of time, I’ve come to realize that yearning for the impossible has always been his special gift and seeking it will always be my eternal curse.”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Sarah Adel"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-adel/my-heart-has-a-way-of-moving-only-for-those-i-can-never-be-with/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b56/sarah-adel-25228_desire_my-heart-has-a-way-of-moving-only-for-th_682591.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b56/sarah-adel-25228_desire_my-heart-has-a-way-of-moving-only-for-th_682591.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b56/sarah-adel-25228_desire_my-heart-has-a-way-of-moving-only-for-th_682591.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“My heart has a way of moving, only, for those I can never be with.. Longing for things that might only occur…” — Sarah Adel",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“I am a lover of words and tragically beautiful things, poor timing and longing, and all things with soul, and I wonder if that means I am entirely broken, or if those are the things that have been keeping me whole.”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Nicole Lyons"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicole-lyons/i-am-a-lover-of-words-and-tragically-beautiful-things-poor-timing-and/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/20c/nicole-lyons-27486_beautiful_i-am-a-lover-of-words-and-tragically-bea_716151.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/20c/nicole-lyons-27486_beautiful_i-am-a-lover-of-words-and-tragically-bea_716151.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/20c/nicole-lyons-27486_beautiful_i-am-a-lover-of-words-and-tragically-bea_716151.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“I am a lover of words and tragically beautiful things, poor timing and longing, and all things with soul…” — Nicole Lyons",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 5,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "In our youths, many of us suspected that being tied down to a partner and family might constrain us. But after 40, even that landscape starts to shift. Many singletons turn inward and start longing for the things so many of us longed to be free of in our 20s.",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Sandra Tsing Loh"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sandra-tsing-loh/in-our-youths-many-of-us-suspected-that-being-tied-down-to-a-partner/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/563/sandra-tsing-loh-8276_family_in-our-youths-many-of-us-suspected-that_2531295.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/563/sandra-tsing-loh-8276_family_in-our-youths-many-of-us-suspected-that_2531295.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/563/sandra-tsing-loh-8276_family_in-our-youths-many-of-us-suspected-that_2531295.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“In our youths, many of us suspected that being tied down to a partner and family might constrain us. But…” — Sandra Tsing Loh",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "CollectionPage",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/longing-things/#webpage",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/longing-things/",
            "name": "Longing Things Quotes",
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "mainEntity": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/longing-things/#itemlist"
            },
            "primaryImageOfPage": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5f9/c-s-lewis-121_beauty_in-speaking-of-this-desire-for-our-own-f_192777.jpg"
            },
            "description": "Browse 5 Longing Things quotes by 5 authors. Discover the best Longing Things sayings and thoughts.",
            "breadcrumb": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/longing-things/#breadcrumb"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/longing-things/#breadcrumb",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Topics",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "Longing Things Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/longing-things/"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```