It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.

Great ambition, the desire of real superiority, of leading and directing, seems to be altogether peculiar to man, and speech is the great instrument of ambition.

Who does not desire such a victory by which we shall join places in our Kingdom, so far divided by nature, and for which we shall set up trophies in another conquered world?

To attempt the destruction of our passions is the height of folly. What a noble aim is that of the zealot who tortures himself like a madman in order to desire nothing, love nothing, feel nothing, and who, if he succeeded, would end up a complete monster!

It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.

A woman of the world is anxious to exhibit her form and shape, whether walking, standing, sitting, or sleeping. Even when represented as a picture, she desires to captivate with the charms of her beauty and, thus, to rob men of their steadfast heart.

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.

Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

“The ambitious climbs up high and perilous stairs, and never cares how to come down; the desire of rising hath swallowed up his fear of a fall”

Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.

“Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.”

“Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.”

There is an invisible strength within us; when it recognizes two opposing objects of desire, it grows stronger.

There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.

There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it.