It is of the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.
What ardently we wish we soon believe.
To you, all you have seems small: to me, all I have seems great. Your desire is insatiable, mine is satisfied. See children thrusting their hands into a narrow-necked jar, and striving to pull out the nuts and figs it contains: if they fill the hand, they cannot pull it out again, and then they fall to tears.—'Let go a few of them, and then you can draw out the rest!'—You, too, let your desire go! covet not many things, and you will obtain. (95).
Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire.
— Jean de La Fontaine
Fear
Beloved, don't fret that you gave yourself so quickly!Desire followed a look, and joy followed desire.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Love
Give, you gods, I'll not be pleased with less than Cleopatra.
Why is anything intrinsically so valueless so obviously desirable?
— John Kenneth Galbraith
Philosophy
My wants are many, and, if told, I still would want for more.
— John Quincy Adams
Desire
They come, an' they quit an' go on; an' every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head. An' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever'body wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head.
— John Steinbeck
Philosophy