Desire
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4.Restraining, purging and renouncing desire
4a.Stoic limitation of desire to what is in our power
See also: Happiness 4a
Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Old AgeVol. 9
- p. 61–62Not to want is pleasanter than to enjoy; Sophocles was glad to escape love as from an insane master.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 118The power of desiring and avoiding is the divine portion given to man.read · scan
- p. 127Random desires and wishes are base; one must not want all to come to pass as desired.read · scan
- p. 131Nobody thanks the gods for having desires in accord with Nature.read · scan
- p. 136We should not desire other than what is best, as God wills.read · scan
- p. 140–141Inflamed desires and impulses out of harmony with Nature are unwelcome truths.read · scan
- p. 143Inner monsters to purge: fear, desire, envy, avarice, intemperance; tranquillity is not sought in outward things.read · scan
- p. 147Without knowing these, one cannot shape desires and impulses by reason.read · scan
- p. 152–153The insatiable want more; the contented are satisfied; let desire go, as the child must release nuts from the jar.read · scan
- p. 154–155Conform desire to Reason by abstaining.read · scan
- p. 155The glow of desire wanes when choices are unconsidered.read · scan
- p. 157Real change shows in altered desires and impulses.read · scan
- p. 166Freedom means desires attain their purpose and avoid what is shunned.read · scan
- p. 169–170Valuing any external thing, even leisure or learning, puts one in subjection; wanting office and shunning it are alike.read · scan
- p. 171–172Desiring and fearing external things yields restraint, injustice and a mean spirit.read · scan
- p. 173–174Like a banquet dish, take what reaches you modestly and do not send desire out to meet what is absent.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 231Desire should find its termination in the practice of justice.read · scan
- p. 234Setting high price on passing things is like falling in love with a passing sparrow.read · scan
- p. 254–255Confine desires and aversions to what is in one's power.read · scan
- p. 258It is in my power to keep badness, desire and perturbation from my soul.read · scan
- p. 266Check desire, extinguish appetite and wipe out imagination, keeping the ruling faculty in its own power.read · scan
- p. 272Better to pray not to fear or desire than to crave in slavish fashion what is not in our power.read · scan
- p. 272Pray not to desire the woman rather than how to possess her.read · scan
- p. 283Men pursue and avoid things as if eternal.read · scan
- p. 283Wishing for green things or soft food is a diseased eye or teeth; demanding praise and children's living is similar.read · scan
- p. 293–294Keep away from sensual desire and show no aversion to things not in our power.read · scan
- p. 298Watch the mind for desire and fear pulling like strings.read · scan
- p. 300–301Questions whether existence, sensation, growth or speech are worth desiring.read · scan
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34
- p. 23Third maxim: conquer oneself rather than fortune, change desires rather than the world's order, so as not to desire the unobtainable.read · scan
- p. 24He could not restrain his desires without a path to all attainable knowledge.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 387–388Do not wish things done as you wish, but as they are done.read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 358–359Do not desire if you would not sin.read · scan
Lord Byron, ManfredVol. 18
- p. 411Manfred asks only for forgetfulness and oblivion; kingdom, power and length of days are worthless to him.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-RelianceVol. 5
- p. 73By desire we bereave ourselves of the love; weak curiosity gives others power to annoy.read · scan
4b.Contentment and the few wants
Buddhist WritingsVol. 45
- p. 752–753The elder ascribes the son's silent departure to moderateness of his passions; content with the four reliances.read · scan
Luke, The Gospel According to LukeVol. 44
- p. 387–388Anxiety over food and clothing is discouraged; seek the kingdom first.read · scan
Tacitus, GermanyVol. 33
- p. 118–119The Fennians have escaped the anxieties of ambition and property, so that nothing remains for them even to wish for.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 274The soul is urged to be free of wants, longing for no pleasures, more time, place or company.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 320–321Verses rebuke desire for the world and its embellishments, which past generations pursued.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, That to Philosophise Is to Learne How to DieVol. 32
- p. 25–26The dead cannot wish for life; no desire afflicts the non-existent.read · scan
Sir Edward Dyer, My Mind to Me a Kingdom IsVol. 40
- p. 207–209Mind forbids craving; seeks no more than suffices.read · scan
William Shakespeare, Songs and SonnetsVol. 40
- p. 262–264Praises the man who shuns ambition and lives content with what he gets.read · scan
Joseph Addison, Westminster AbbeyVol. 27
- p. 80Reading epitaphs of the beautiful extinguishes inordinate desire.read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 407The simple Indian asks no angel's wing; his natural desire is content.read · scan
George Bubb Dodington, Lord Melcombe, Shorten SailVol. 40
- p. 463–464Void of strong desire, tempestuous passions kept free, for peace.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34
- p. 177–178His heart asks nothing; moderate wants are easily supplied, so no temptation to change his condition.read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1
- p. 292–293Warns against covetousness; urges contentment with food and raiment.read · scan
Oliver Goldsmith, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 509Calm desires asking little room contrasted with luxury's wants.read · scan
4c.The Buddhist and Gita teaching of the cessation of craving
See also: Religion 14d · Life and Death 7c · Wisdom 7d · Cause 6d
Buddhist WritingsVol. 45
- p. 577–579Passions hem him in like foes; he resolves to escape them and seek release from existence.read · scan
- p. 581The monastic life avoids passionate longing for furniture and hoarded treasure.read · scan
- p. 582–583Tree-dwelling brings abandonment of longing for household life and of possessiveness.read · scan
- p. 583–585He could consume his corruptions today but resolves to aim higher.read · scan
- p. 617–618The seat is the place for destroying passion's net; Mara resists his passing beyond his control.read · scan
- p. 623–624His utterance declares the builder of rebirth found and the mind having seen the last of all desire.read · scan
- p. 625–626In the chain, sensation gives rise to desire, desire to attachment; cessation of desire ends the chain.read · scan
- p. 651–652The teaching tends to absence of passion and cessation.read · scan
- p. 657–658Gods and men delight in existence and resist the doctrine of cessation; the wise turn toward absence of passion.read · scan
- p. 660Ceasing to attach oneself to anything brings freedom from agitation.read · scan
- p. 661–662Desire depends on sensation and gives rise to attachment in the chain of misery.read · scan
- p. 667Ignorance leads to karma that ministers to desire, and to passion-enthralled living, which are the cause of misery.read · scan
- p. 668–669Covetousness, hatred and infatuation are named as the three conditions producing deeds.read · scan
- p. 669–670Covetousness is a root condition of deeds; its absence uproots them.read · scan
- p. 670–671Covetousness, hatred and infatuation are the conditions producing deeds; the wise yield to none of them.read · scan
- p. 681–682Desire and ignorance incline consciousness toward an object, while karma impels it to a new resting-place.read · scan
- p. 688–689Attachment is the fertile source of birth and death, from which the wise free themselves.read · scan
- p. 703–704Concentration purifies the corruption of desire.read · scan
- p. 705Training in quiescence trains the thoughts and abandons passion.read · scan
- p. 714–715Distinguishes noble from ignoble craving; craving what is subject to birth, decay and death is ignoble.read · scan
- p. 715–716Noble craving seeks Nirvana, free from birth and corruption; ignoble craving clings to perishable things.read · scan
- p. 719–720Mankind is held spell-bound by lusts, which makes the doctrine of ceasing desire hard to grasp.read · scan
- p. 720–721Mankind enthralled by lusts and hates cannot see the doctrine; darkness of passion blinds them.read · scan
- p. 724–725Freedom won through the destruction of thirst; lust's fire is quenched.read · scan
- p. 748–749The priest's mind is not caught or held fast by gain, like a hand in the air.read · scan
- p. 756–757The son is reluctant to marry, setting exacting conditions.read · scan
The Bhagavad-Gita; or, Song CelestialVol. 45
- p. 794–795Those who most desire wealth and power have least fixity of soul.read · scan
- p. 796Brooding on sense objects breeds attraction, desire, passion, recklessness and ruin; abandoning desires brings peace.read · scan
- p. 797–799The perfect man, like the ocean, is unmoved by sense-pleasures; he is lord of his lusts, free from passion and pride.read · scan
- p. 801–802Passion (Kama) is man's enemy, driving him to sin, blinding sense, mind and reason like smoke over fire.read · scan
- p. 805Acting free from the pricks of desire, renouncing fruit of deeds, leaves the soul unstained.read · scan
- p. 817–818Even right desire draws the fallen on unwittingly toward the purity of Yoga.read · scan
- p. 820–822Desire turns men's knowledge aside to lower gods; likes and dislikes are snares bewildering all creatures.read · scan
- p. 822–823The seeker shuts the senses' gates and locks desire safe in his heart.read · scan
- p. 853–855Passion is kin to appetite, breeding impulse, longing, unrest and striving to gain.read · scan
- p. 855–858The parable of the tree shows sense-temptings binding men by actions; the axe of detachment cuts the roots.read · scan
- p. 861–863The demonic man is ensnared by idle hopes, insatiable lust, wrath and avarice, the three doors of hell.read · scan
- p. 865–867Sannyasa is renouncing acts born of desire; Tyaga is renouncing the fruit of acts.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 66–68Faust curses glory, property, wealth, wine, love, hope, faith and patience as delusions that bind the spirit.read · scan
4d.Christian mortification of desire
See also: Liberty 2e · Religion 4e
The Book of PsalmsVol. 44
- p. 296–297Prays that his heart be inclined to God's testimonies and not to covetousness.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 71Through Augustine's desires God hurried him to end all desire.read · scan
- p. 93He weighs abandoning worldly hopes for seeking God against the sweetness of office, wife and money.read · scan
- p. 124–125He prefers the pleasure of cupidity to charity, like a sleeper unwilling to rise.read · scan
- p. 127Worldly hopes are renounced; his mind stripped of the world.read · scan
- p. 128–129He wished concupiscence satisfied rather than extinguished, deferring rejection of earthly felicity and bodily pleasures.read · scan
- p. 133–134Old attachments plead that he cannot live without them.read · scan
- p. 134Fleshly delights mutter against the law of the Lord.read · scan
- p. 181Lust of the flesh, of the eyes and worldly ambition must be restrained.read · scan
- p. 187Lust of the flesh through the eyes; he resists the seductions of sight lest his feet be ensnared.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 887–889Paradise for him who prohibited his soul from lust.read · scan
- p. 999–1000Follow not the lusts of the unbelievers, which turn one from truth.read · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 205–206Following fleshly desires brings misery.read · scan
- p. 210–211Immoderate desire brings restlessness; true peace of heart comes from resisting passion, not yielding to it.read · scan
- p. 213–214Being bound to affections and desires blocks the way of the Saints.read · scan
- p. 217–218Secret self-seeking ends and frustrated desires disturb peace of mind.read · scan
- p. 225–226Sensual desires draw one abroad, and carnal joy begins pleasantly but ends destructively.read · scan
- p. 270–272Renouncing carnal delight; the speaker's great desire is to serve God.read · scan
- p. 272–273Desires must be subjected to God's will and examined; even good desires need restraint, and sensual appetite must be disciplined.read · scan
- p. 276–277Not every desire is from the Holy Spirit; it is hard to discern whether a good or evil spirit moves us.read · scan
- p. 281–282Passions and hateful fancies rush in easily and depart slowly; lusts of flesh and eyes draw men to love the world.read · scan
- p. 286–287Asks to have alluring lusts, the 'evil beasts', driven out so peace may reign.read · scan
- p. 290–291Asks not to be entangled by inordinate affection for creatures or fleshly delight.read · scan
- p. 291Self-love and covetousness bind us; peace comes from cutting worldly desires out of the heart, including for riches, honor and praise.read · scan
- p. 295Freedom belongs to him who desires nothing upon earth.read · scan
- p. 305–306Even small things loved inordinately hold us back from the highest good.read · scan
- p. 316What pleases you shall not prosper; you must leave undone what you would do.read · scan
- p. 322Casting away earthly consolations and affections that hinder grace.read · scan
- p. 323–324Nature loves ease, honour and comfort; grace embraces labour, shame and subjection.read · scan
- p. 347Rebukes concupiscence and desire for many things, and the flesh's love of ease.read · scan
Sir Thomas Malory, The Holy GrailVol. 35
- p. 130–131He contrasts seeking worldly adventures for worldly desires with taking up holy adventures.read · scan
Martin Luther, Concerning Christian LibertyVol. 36
- p. 360The flesh strives for gratification against the spirit; lusts must be restrained.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, LettersVol. 48
- p. 329–330Secret pleasure in building may enslave Perier's attention.read · scan
- p. 340–341Concupiscible appetite fills us with desires, symbolized by Everead · scan
- p. 351–352Before grace we feel only the burden of concupiscence pressing us to earth.read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1
- p. 172The cravings of sense must be governed by a divine principle; Christ prevails over selfish desires.read · scan
- p. 196–197The Holy Spirit sets right bounds to our desires, leading to proper use of Providence's gifts.read · scan
- p. 285–286David poured out the water won at risk of men's lives, as Woolman renounces gratifying his palate with slave-grown sugar.read · scan
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