Theme

Desire philosophy quotes

Desire drives action and suffering alike; philosophy asks which desires to educate, restrain, or affirm.

Why this theme matters

Ethics and moral psychology analyze appetite, love, ambition, and addiction. Stoic, Buddhist, and psychoanalytic traditions treat desire as trainable rather than merely given.

In the history of philosophy

From Plato’s tripartite soul to Spinoza’s conatus and modern consumer critique, desire remains a hinge between metaphysics and ethics.

Thinkers in this collection

Epictetus , Epicurus , Boethius , The Book of Changes , David Hume , Lucretius , Thomas Hobbes , Jean-Paul Sartre

Frequently asked questions

What is desire in philosophy?

It is a directed wanting that can motivate action—evaluated as natural, distorted, or educable depending on the school.

Should we eliminate desire?

Some ascetic ideals aim at quieting craving; others seek ordered or enlightened desire rather than elimination.

Where are philosophy quotes about desire?

This page gathers English passages on appetite, longing, and self-mastery.

  1. It is not things that disturb people, but their judgments about things.
  2. Do not seek for things to happen as you wish, but wish for things to happen as they do, and you will flow well.
  3. Nature's wealth has its bounds and is easy to procure; but the wealth of vain fancies recedes to an infinite distance.
  4. Wealth does not take away need — it kindles new wants.
  5. Heaven moves with vigor; the gentleman accordingly strengthens himself without cease.
  6. Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.
  7. From the very fountain of delights rises something bitter that chokes among the flowers themselves.
  8. Felicity is a continual progress of the desire, from one object to another.
  9. Man is a useless passion.
  10. Before joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure are issued, that is called the Mean; when issued and all hit due measure, that is called Harmony.
  11. I shall endeavor not to laugh at human actions, nor to weep over them, nor to hate them, but to understand them.
  12. Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.
  13. The cry of the flesh is not to be hungry, not to be thirsty, not to be cold.
  14. to change my desires rather than the order of the world
  15. Not to laugh at, lament, or detest human actions, but to understand them.