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Quotes
for
the Journey:
Desire
One who knows that enough is
enough will always
have enough.
Lao-Tzu
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Moderate desires
constitute a character fitted to acquire all the good which
the world
can yield. Those who have this character are prepared, in whatever
situation they are, therewith to be content and have learned the science
of being happy. -Timothy Dwight
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When one withdraws all
desires
as a tortoise withdraws its limbs,
the the natural splendor of
the world soon manifests itself. -from the Mahabharata
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Each
desire. . . causes us to act and think in ways that result in
yet even more desires and cravings. Like a dog running
after its own tail, cause and effect chase each other around
in circles. "But," you may be asking,
"don't we need to desire things?"
It is
certainly true that not all desires are equal in terms of how
they create suffering. Some desires, of course, are
simply a matter of preference that might not really make much
of a difference. Wanting to paint your house pink
instead of brown will not harm anyone--except maybe the
fashion police.
And yes,
there definitely are many good desires. For example,
without the desire for food we would not stay alive. It
is when our desire becomes an unquenchable craving or
obsession, or causes us to do harm to ourselves or others,
that it creates suffering and unhappiness. If you have
ever been hurt because you tied your happiness or well-being
to a person, place, opinion, self-identity, behavior, or goal,
then you have firsthand experience of desire.
Donald
Altman |
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| We don't need to
increase our goods nearly as much
as we need to scale down our
wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it.
-Donald Horban |
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| Freedom
is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired,
but by controlling the desire. -Epictetus |
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| There's
nothing wrong with desire; in fact, it's inherently
wonderful. Desire causes us to work harder to achieve
goals. But we must be sure that the objects of our desire
are attainable, and if they're not, then we must admit
that to ourselves. Sometimes those things that we desire
are the things that turn out to be the most harmful to us
and others. If you desire something unattainable or
inappropriate, admit that desire to yourself, but also
acknowledge that acting to fulfill that desire would be
very inappropriate and harmful. If you desire something
appropriate and attainable, go for it--and good luck in
getting it. -Tom Walsh |
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| Welcome everything that comes to you,
but do not long for anything else.
-Andre Gide |
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| Every
time you have a desire, in a certain sense you have a goal,
something you would like to be, do, or have. Some desires are
merely passing fancies, but others stay with us and go deeper.
Our
desires and our goals give us direction and focus. They help
point
us down our path of action in our life.
-Shakti Gawain |
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| It is the
nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most people live
only for the gratification of it. The beginning of reform is not
so much
to equalize property as to train the noble sort of natures not to
desire
more, and to prevent the lower from getting more.
-Aristotle |
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| If one gives way to all one's desires, or
panders to them, there will
be no inner struggle in that person, no friction, no fire. But
if, for the
sake of attaining a definite aim, one struggles with desires that
hinder
him or her, that person will then create a fire which will gradually
transform his or her inner world into a single whole.
-P.D. Ouspensky |
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| Understand desire,
and you understand happiness and unhappiness. If desire
is the fuel, intention is the engine. Intention is the strength
of purpose and will
that powers you up past the steep inclines and keeps you chugging
along
over the bogs. Without intention to utilize your desire, the
desire will pool in
your mind, dormant like the gas in the tank of a car that sits idle in
a garage. And unless you periodically fuel your intention with desire, you'll
sputter to a stop
despite the best intentions. The unabating desire for things of
this world--money,
sex, fame, name, people, beauty, bodies--with all their particular
insistent
requirements, keeps us revved up, falsely advertises the destination
"Happiness,"
and keeps us cruising down those roads. But when and if we ever
arrive,
we're never there. At least not for long.
-Michael Goddart |
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| There
are many objects of desire, and therefore many desires. Some are born with us, hunger, yearning, and pride of place, and
some are the foolishness of the world, such as the desire to eat off
silver plates. Desire is a wild horse to be tamed. Virtue
is a habit
long continued. The taming of desire is like the training of the
athlete. Discipline is not the restraint but the use of energy. . . . When I
forbid
myself what I may have, no person is going to tempt me
with what is truly forbidden. -Guy Davenport |
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| As you grow older you will find
that your desires are never really fulfilled. In fulfillment there is always the shadow of frustration, and in your
heart
there is not a song but a cry. The desire to become--to become a
great man
or woman, a great saint, a great this or that--has no end and
therefore no
fulfillment; its demand is ever for the "more," and such
desire always breeds
agony, misery, wars. But when one is free of all desire to
become, there is
a state of being whose action is totally different. It is.
That which is has no
time. It does not think in terms of fulfillment. Its very
being is in its fulfillment. -J. Krishnamurti |
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