Plant the seed of desire in your mind and it forms a nucleus with power to attract to itself everything needed for its fulfillment.
—Robert Collier (1885–1950) American Self-Help Author
If your desires be endless, your cares and fears will be so, too.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
The thirst of desire is never filled, nor fully satisfied.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Desire of having is the sin of covetousness.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
There are no better masters than poverty and wants.
—Dutch Proverb
It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.
—Mario Andretti (b.1940) Italian-born American Sportsperson
Just as a fire is covered by smoke and a mirror is obscured by dust, just as the embryo rests deep within the womb, wisdom is hidden by selfish desire.
—The Bhagavad Gita Hindu Scripture
I never desired to please the rabble. What pleased them, I did not learn; and what I knew was far removed from their understanding.
—Epicurus (c.341–270 BCE) Greek Philosopher
We do not succeed in changing things according to our desire, but gradually our desire changes.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of man.
—John Adams (1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
The distance between success and failure can only be measured by one’s desire.
—Unknown
In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful; and the beautiful things that God makes are his gift to all alike.
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96) American Abolitionist, Author
Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
Let reason govern desire.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.
—Frank Herbert (1920–86) American Science Fiction Writer
The first principle of success is desire—knowing what you want. Desire is the planting of your seed.
—Robert Collier (1885–1950) American Self-Help Author
If you desire faith, then you have faith enough.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61) English Poet
I believe that traditional wisdom is incomplete. A composer can have all the talent of Mozart and a passionate desire to succeed, but if he believes he cannot compose music, he will come to nothing. He will not try hard enough. He will give up too soon when the elusive right melody takes too long to materialize.
—Martin Seligman (b.1942) American Psychologist, Author
Everything that is, desires to be. As we act, we unfold our being. Enjoyment naturally follows, for a thing desired always brings delight.
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian Poet, Philosopher
Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
There is nothing capricious in nature; and the implanting of a desire indicates that its gratification is in the constitution of the creature that feels it.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Desire is proof of the availability…
—Robert Collier (1885–1950) American Self-Help Author
The first principle of success is desire—knowing what you want. Desire is the planting of your seed. Very few persons, comparatively, know how to Desire with sufficient intensity. They do not know what it is to feel and manifest that intense, eager, longing, craving, insistent, demanding, ravenous Desire which is akin to the persistent, insistent, ardent, overwhelming desire of the drowning man for a breath of air; of the shipwrecked or desert-lost man for a drink of water; of the famished man for bread and meat…
—Robert Collier (1885–1950) American Self-Help Author
First the stalk—then the roots. First the need—then the means to satisfy that need. First the nucleus—then the elements needed for its growth.
—Robert Collier (1885–1950) American Self-Help Author
Be careful what you set your heart upon—for it will surely be yours.
—James Baldwin (1924–87) American Novelist, Social Critic
It is not from nature, but from education and habits, that our wants are chiefly derived.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.
—Robert Kiyosaki (b.1947) American Businessperson, Author, Motivational Speaker
If you desire to dig a well to reach water, your efforts are more fruitful if you dig one 100-foot-deep hole than if you dig ten holes each 10 feet deep.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
Opportunity makes desire.
—Dutch Proverb
Those who really desire to attain an independence, have only set their minds upon it, and adopt the proper means, as they do in regard to any other object which they wish to accomplish, and the thing is easily done.
—P. T. Barnum (1810–91) American Businessperson, Entertainer
No person can arise above his real desire. Desires are of value only when they drive us to action. Will and work must accompany desire. Then high resolve is born. Desire is the design that will spurs us into achievement.
—Indian Proverb
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
We never desire strongly, what we desire rationally.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
If you desire a thing, picture it clearly and hold the picture steadily in mid until it becomes a definite thought-form.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
Ignore what a man desires, and you ignore the very source of his power.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
The child who desires education will be bettered by it; the child who dislikes it disgraced.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
You can have anything you want—if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, have anything you desire, accomplish anything you set out to accomplish—if you will hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.
—Robert Collier (1885–1950) American Self-Help Author
Bounded in his nature, infinite in his desires, man is a fallen god who has a recollection of heaven.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French Poet, Politician, Historian
Where necessity ends, curiosity begins; and no sooner are we supplied with everything that nature can demand, than we sit down to contrive artificial appetites.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. And that is not happiness.
—F. H. Bradley (1846–1924 ) British Idealist Philosopher
Anything you really want, you can attain, if you really go after it.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
It is the soul’s duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion.
—Rebecca West (1892–1983) English Author, Journalist, Literary Critic
Through some strange and powerful principle of “mental chemistry” which she has never divulged, nature wraps up in the impulse of strong desire, “that something” which recognizes no such word as “impossible,” and accepts no such reality as failure.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
A state of expectancy is a great assetl; a state of uncertainty—one moment thinking “perhaps” and the next moment thinking “I don’t know”—will never get desired results.
—Ernest Holmes (1887–1960) American New Thought Writer, Teacher
It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Writer
He that flatters you more than you desire either has deceived you or wishes to deceive.
—Italian Proverb
Tell me what you like and I’ll tell you what you are.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic