Desire
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3.Desire in conflict with reason, duty and the will
3a.Reason should govern appetite
Plato, PhaedoVol. 2
- p. 86–88The soul holds back bodily hunger and thirst, showing it governs appetite.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Old AgeVol. 9
- p. 59Wanton appetites are roused beyond prudence; when appetite is master, no self-control remains.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 144Lust after money is checked by reason or else grows more quickly.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 309–310Avarice, lust and ambition lose their hold on the sick.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 201Theophrastus: offences from desire are more blamable than those from anger, being done with pleasure.read · scan
- p. 210–211Being pulled by desire's strings marks beasts and tyrants like Phalaris and Nero.read · scan
- p. 250Rational motion must never be overpowered by the appetites, which are animal.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 184–185Biblical examples (Esau, David, the Israelites) show that the fault lies in the lusting, not in the thing desired.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 196Appetite belongs to nature, and right reason covets what is naturally pleasant without wrong to others.read · scan
George Gascoigne, A Lover's LullabyVol. 40
- p. 195–196He bids his wanton will be still and lets reason rule, bidding pleasure pass.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46
- p. 107Keep out of the shot and danger of desire; youth to itself rebels.read · scan
John Eliot, Eliot's Brief NarrativeVol. 43
- p. 143Eliot wants Indians able to bridle their own appetites amid enticements.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 305Depraved appetite hears reason's instruction but performs only what suits its irregular humour.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at Horton, 1632-1638Vol. 4
- p. 57–62Comus appeals to appetite and youthful fancy; she answers with a well-governed appetite.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 342Inordinate desires and upstart passions seize government from reason.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise RegainedVol. 4
- p. 371He who rules passions, desires and fears is more a kingread · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 135–136Lead man to desire truth, free from passions, hating the lust that determines his will and blinds his choice.read · scan
- p. 164–165The righteous man takes of the world only for his passions, which he commands as master.read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37
- p. 28–29Indulged childish appetites grow into adult vices; the fault lies in not subjecting desires to reason and self-denial.read · scan
- p. 34–35Mastery over inclinations and resisting present pleasure for what reason dictates is the foundation of virtue.read · scan
- p. 173Appetite must be submitted to reason.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 49–51Obstinate worldly desire opposed to sacred vehemence of aspiration.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 649–651He feels the weight of chance-desires and seeks constancy.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 262–263He denies his body's craving for rest, preferring to collapse rather than yield before reaching the border.read · scan
3b.Inclination as opposed to duty and the moral law
See also: Duty 1a · Liberty 1b · Will 1b
Martin Luther, Concerning Christian LibertyVol. 36
- p. 348–349Coveting is unavoidable whatever efforts one makes to the contrary.read · scan
Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of MoralsVol. 32
- p. 309Direct inclination and selfish interest can coincide with duty, obscuring moral motive.read · scan
- p. 311–312Inclination may be approved or loved but never respected; it must be overpowered by the law.read · scan
- p. 316–317Wants and inclinations are impetuous and plausible, resisting suppression by duty.read · scan
- p. 335Inclination opposes reason's precept, leading us to allow ourselves exceptions in our own favour.read · scan
- p. 336Propensions and inclinations are subjective and cannot ground moral law; inclination defined as habitual sensible desire.read · scan
- p. 338Subjective ends rest on particular desires, giving them only relative worth.read · scan
- p. 338Inclinations have only conditional worth; every rational being would wish to be free from them.read · scan
- p. 354Inclination and taste determine the will through wishes for objects, giving only conditional imperatives.read · scan
- p. 358Sensibility and other springs sometimes prevent reason from determining action.read · scan
- p. 363Actions in the sensible world are determined by desires and inclinations.read · scan
- p. 363–364Sensible desires and impulses prevent attaining the good will.read · scan
- p. 367–368Man does not ascribe inclinations to his proper self but only to indulgence of them in his maxims.read · scan
3c.Passion overcoming judgment
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 39Wishing life and death for the same thing is a delusion.read · scan
Plutarch, AntonyVol. 12
- p. 349Passion for Cleopatra, like Plato's rebellious horse of the soul, breaks loose from wholesome counsel.read · scan
- p. 372Passion for Cleopatra overrides Antony's judgment and duty as commander.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 897–898Man cannot simply have what he desires; souls lust after false gods.read · scan
- p. 979The devil stirs up vain desires and promises only to deceive.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 74–75Passion drives the prince to smash the talisman despite her pleas to be content.read · scan
- p. 212Ibrahim, sitting apart, is drawn toward joining the revelers and their wine.read · scan
Songs from the Elder EddaVol. 49
- p. 400–403Gudrun refuses to seek gladness and vows to end Atli by her own handread · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 95Galaor's natural inclination to love all fair ladies, which he could not govern.read · scan
- p. 325Delight in beholding Camilla defeats Lothario's resolutions to flee and erodes his respect for his friend.read · scan
- p. 325Lothario's pleasure overthrows his loyalty and he solicits Camilla with amorous words.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46
- p. 162He argues that lust in a matron of her age defies judgement, and that reason panders to will.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King LearVol. 46
- p. 310–314Both sisters died over Edmund, one poisoning the other and then herself.read · scan
Philip Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old DebtsVol. 47
- p. 892–895Allworth fears that Margaret's beauty, voice and touch, joined to Overreach's wealth, will overcome Lovell's reason with passion.read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 373Interest, ambition, profit and lust make men dispute right and wrong while indifferent to geometric truth.read · scan
Izaak Walton, The Life of Dr. John DonneVol. 15
- p. 326Passion begets unwearied industry toward what we desire, carrying us to errors like whirlwinds moving feathers.read · scan
Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Life Is a DreamVol. 26
- p. 43Segismund impulsively tries to embrace Estrella and rages at interference, asserting his will and blood.read · scan
Pierre Corneille, PolyeucteVol. 26
- p. 115Pauline scorns hope of happiness rising from her husband's grave as a thrice abhorred desire.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 45–46Passion leads us to read a book we like when we ought to do something else.read · scan
- p. 46–47Each man's ruling passion can be pleased, yet his fancies oppose his true good in his idea of the good.read · scan
- p. 86Belief is hindered by the passions, which must be lessened rather than more proofs added.read · scan
- p. 95–96Superstition, lust, scruples and evil desires linked to false fear.read · scan
- p. 154–155Passions and external objects impel us outside ourselves even unprompted.read · scan
- p. 185Unbelief springs from lust or malice of heart rather than reason.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 402–403A corrupt will's desires often defeat the enlightened mind in choosing between truth and pleasure.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 33–34Passion demands all his goods now and squanders them, while Patience is willing to wait.read · scan
- p. 114–115Wish for an easier road leads pilgrims off the way.read · scan
- p. 130–131Esau's fleshly appetite and lusts drive him to sell his birthrightread · scan
- p. 143–144Hopeful is tempted to leave off praying a hundred times.read · scan
Jean Racine, PhaedraVol. 26
- p. 160–161Her desire persists despite every effort to resist it.read · scan
- p. 161–163Phaedra's passion overcomes reason; she cannot leave Hippolytus and cannot reign when she has lost control of herself.read · scan
- p. 163–164Phaedra bids Oenone serve her madness, not reason, and tries to win Hippolytus by appealing to his ambition.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34
- p. 185Savage man is unhappy only when racked by passions and flashes of knowledge.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 393–394Tam loses his reason watching Nannie dance and cries out.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 232Burning desire for action tempts the man of feeling to reform the moral world impatiently.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 610–612He becomes slave of low desires without self-control, relapsing into lawlessness.read · scan
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household TalesVol. 17
- p. 110–111Red-Cap is drawn from the path by the lure of ever prettier flowers, enabling the wolf.read · scan
- p. 150–151The apple is made so that everyone who sees it longs for it.read · scan
- p. 152Snow-white longs for the fine apple and cannot resist despite the dwarfs' prohibition.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5
- p. 91–92Unbridled desires are punished with blindness; man sees the allurement but not the hurt.read · scan
Hans Christian Andersen, TalesVol. 17
- p. 231–232The Princess craves the trinket and yields to the price of kisses, shamelessly.read · scan
- p. 232–233The Princess's craving for the trinket overcomes her pride and dignity.read · scan
- p. 331–332Karen cannot resist looking at the shoes, and puts them on despite knowing better.read · scan
3d.The controversy over strong desires as energy or as danger
Oliver Goldsmith, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 524–525Every want redressed becomes pleasure; without strong desire life is a smouldering fire.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 272–273Two conflicting wishes, to escape and to remain undiscovered, deprive him of peace.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5
- p. 90–91Men seek to detach sensual pleasure, power and fame from their moral counterparts, wanting one side of nature without the other.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25
- p. 254Strong impulses are energy and the raw material of human nature; men act ill from weak consciences, not strong desires.read · scan
- p. 254–255People lose strong wishes and native pleasures by not following their own nature.read · scan
Robert Louis Stevenson, Samuel PepysVol. 28
- p. 291–292Pepys's portrait shows a face of varied desires; a single desire is a lust, but variety lets one balance and control another.read · scan
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