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Desire Quotes by Samuel Johnson
- There lurks, perhaps, in every human heart a desire of distinction, which inclines every man first to hope, and then to believe, that Nature has…
- Our desires always increase with our possessions. The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.
- Let him that desires to see others happy, make haste to give while his gift can be enjoyed, and remember that every moment of delay…
- We are all prompted by the same motives, all deceived by the same fallacies, all animated by hope, obstructed by danger, entangled by desire, and…
- The great end of prudence is to give cheerfulness to those hours which splendour cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate; those soft intervals of unbended…
- No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance, or to extinguish the desire of fond…
- The hostility perpetually exercised between one man and another, is caused by the desire of many for that which only few can possess. Every man…
- Books have always a secret influence on the understanding; we cannot at pleasure obliterate ideas; he that reads books of science, thogh without any fixed…
- There prevails among men of letters, an opinion, that all appearance of science is particularly hateful to Women; and that therefore whoever desires to be…
- All envy is proportionate to desire; we are uneasy at the attainments of another, according as we think our own happiness would be advanced by…
- The desire of advising has a very extensive prevalence; and, since advice cannot be given but to those that will hear it, a patient listener…
- Such is the state of every age, every sex, and every condition: all have their cares, either from nature or from folly; and whoever, therefore,…
- Among the lower classes of mankind there will be found very little desire of any other knowledge than what may contribute immediately to the relief…
- Curiosity, like all other desires, produces pain as well as pleasure.
- But the distant hope of being one day useful or eminent ought not to mislead us too far from that study which is equally requisite…
- We took tea, by Boswell's desire; and I eat one bun, I think, that I might not be seen to fast ostentatiously. When I find…
- The present time is seldom able to fill desire or imagination with immediate enjoyment, and we are forced to supply its deficiencies by recollection or…
- There is no temper more unpropitious to interest than desultory application and unlimited inquiry, by which the desires are held in a perpetual equipoise, and…
- He to whom many objects of pursuit arise at the same time, will frequently hesitate between different desires till a rival has precluded him, or…
- It is not the desire of new acquisitions, but the glory of conquests, that fires the soldier's breast; as indeed the town is seldom worth…
More Desire Quotes
- All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire. — Aristotle
- The beginning of reform is not so much to equalize property as to train the noble sort of natures not to desire… — Aristotle
- I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self. — Aristotle
- The ultimate end of human acts is eudaimonia, happiness in the sense of living well, which all men desire; all acts are… — Hannah Arendt
- All men by nature desire knowledge. — Aristotle
- Listen to what you know instead of what you fear. — Richard Bach
- Harry, despite your privileged insight into Voldemort’s world (which, incidentally, is a gift any Death Eater would kill to have), you have… — Joanne Kathleen Rowling
- "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all good things will be added unto you." Follow God and you shall have… — Swami Vivekananda