38 Inspiring Quotes About Desire

In a world constantly buzzing with ambitions and dreams, desire stands as a powerful motivator that drives action and fuels imagination. It is the spark that ignites the pursuit of goals and shapes the journey towards achievement. Whether it's a yearning for success, love, or personal growth, desire plays a pivotal role in our lives. In this collection, we've gathered 38 inspiring quotes about desire that encapsulate its essence and illuminate its transformative power. Let these words of wisdom guide you, inspire you, and remind you of the potential that lies in the pursuit of your deepest aspirations.

1. “He wants the minute and secret reflection between them, the depth of field minimal, their foreignness intimate like two pages of a closed book.” - Michael Ondaatje

2. “It was beautiful Eric, who desired me, who was hungry for me, in a world that often let me know it could do very well without me.” - Charlaine Harris

3. “Desire is suffering. A simple equation, and a nice catchphrase. But flipped around, it is more troubling: suffering is desire.” - Charles Yu

4. “I want to take you until you are boneless. I want to drain you of strength. I want to fill you and take my fill of you. My dear, Ivy, I want to devour you. I want your juices on my toung, flooding my mouth. I want your wetness on my face, your scent covering me. I want your blood in my veins.” - Kathryn Smith

5. “And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & desires.” - William Blake

6. “We who are like senseless children shrink from suffering, but love its causes. We hurt ourselves; our pain is self-inflicted! Why should others be the object of our anger?” - Shantideva

7. “Everyone believes very easily whatever he fears or desires.” - Jean de La Fontaine

8. “I, answering in the end, began: 'Alas,how many yearning thoughts, what great desire,have lead them through such sorrow to their fate?” - Dante Alighieri

9. “Should the king in exile pretend he is happy there?Should he not seek his own country?His miseries are his ally; they urge him on. Let them grow, if need be. But do not forsake the secret of life; do not despise those kingly desires. We abandon the most important journey of our lives when we abandon desire. We leave our hearts by the side of the road and head off in the direction of fitting in, getting by, being productive, what have you. Whatever we might gain – money, position, the approval of others, or just absence of the discontent self – it’s not worth it.” - John Eldredge

10. “You can want and want and want, but if he doesn't want you back ... you might as well wish the sky were red.” - Sophie Kinsella

11. “....love and desire enjoy a symbiotic relationship, meaning that one cannot exist without the other. Desire is an enemy to contentment; desire is illness, a feverish brain. Who can be considered healthy who wants? The very word want suggests a lack, an impoverishment, and that is what desire is: an impoverishment of the brain, a flaw, a mistake.” - Lauren Oliver

12. “She'd been in love with the man, and love is a scary thing. If not reciprocated, it can turn a person into a monster.” - Michele Young-Stone

13. “You asked about love. I don't know about love, Daphne. I just know I don't want anything but you. I don't want to anywhere but with you.” - Brenna Yovanoff

14. “I don’t want the finer things in life, like preserves of jam and thick soft quilts, until I get what I need: the machinery to make that stuff for me.” - M.C. Humphreys

15. “Gabriel pulled her over his body to lie on the bed beside him. His kisses pressed her down into the oblivion of the mattress as her hands explored his chest, his shoulders, his face."I want to lay my kill at your feet," he said, more growl than words, and held her tight by her hair as he marked her neck with his teeth.She writhed against him. She wanted to bite him, she wanted to rip the flesh from his back, but most terrible of all, she didn't want him to stop. Her back arched, her body shattered, she howled.” - Annette Curtis Klause

16. “We mistakenly assume that bodily survival has a higher precedence than ego survival. This is simply not generally true. Ego will happily destroy the body for its own sake. Look at overweight executives headed for heart attacks on the way to getting their pictures in Fortune or anorexic models suffering slow starvation on their way to getting their pictures in Vogue. Protecting ego is the general case.” - Karl Marlantes

17. “I've wandered through the real world, and written myself through the darkness of the streets inside me. I see people walking through the city and wonder where they've been, and what the moments of their lives have done to them. If they're anything like me, their moments have held them up and shot them down.Sometimes I just survive.But sometimes I stand on the rooftop of my existence, arms stretched out, begging for more.That's when the stories show up in me.They find me all the time.They're made of underdogs and fighters. They're made of hunger and desire and trying to live decent.The only trouble is, I don't know which of those stories comes first.Maybe they all just merge into one.We'll see, I guess.I'll let you know when I decide.” - Markus Zusak

18. “The world is little, people are little, human life is little. There is only one big thing — desire.” - Willa Cather

19. “If I stayed here, something inside me would be lost forever—something I couldn't afford to lose. It was like a vague dream, a burning, unfulfilled desire. The kind of dream people have only when they're seventeen.” - Haruki Murakami

20. “He was so close to her then that they owned every molecule of air in the tiny room and the air grew heavy with their desire and worked to move them together.” - Ann Patchett

21. “Love is the castle, doubt is the moat, desire is the paddle and hope is the boat.” - Kellie Elmore

22. “The room where they were dancing was very dark.... It was queer to be in his arms.... She had known better dancers.... He had looked ill.... Perhaps he was.... Oh, poor Valentine-Elisabeth.... What a funny position!.... The good gramophone played.... Destiny!.... You see, father! ... In his arms! Of course, dancing is not really.... But so near the real thing! So near!... 'Good luck to the special intention!...' She had almost kissed him on the lips ... All but!... Effleurer, the French call it.... But she was not as humble.... He had pressed her tighter.... All these months without.... My lord did me honour.... Good for Malbrouck s'en va-t-en guerre.... He knew she had almost kissed him on the lips.... And that his lips had almost responded.... The civilian, the novelist, had turned out the last light.... Tietjens said, 'Hadn't we better talk?...' She said: 'In my room, then! I'm dog-tired.... I haven't slept for six nights.... In spite of drugs...' He said: 'Yes. Of course! Where else?....” - Ford Madox Ford

23. “Each of us has immense potential to achieve what we desire, unless you enliven and enlighten your life with inspiration, bring your dreams into reality through the power of desire you will never shine as bright as your potential.” - Steven Redhead

24. “Dear God," said Nudge under her breath, "I want real parents. But I want them to want me too. I wantthem to love me. I already love them. Please see what you can do. Thanks very much. Love, Nudge."Okay, so I'm not saying we were pros at this or anything. (Max thoughts)” - James Patterson

25. “Desire is an appetite, quickly sated. Longing is a wound, an opening in the heart or the spirit. Whatever the cause, whatever the duration, it almost always leaves a scar.” - Philip Sington

26. “Part of me wanted this more than anything else in the world—to have someone to hang out with, be like everyone else for a while. The rest of me screamed to get the hell out of there, not to get sucked in.” - Rachel Ward

27. “If somebody never gets enough of you, they will always want more” - Ashly Lorenzana

28. “Do me a favor? Be a gentleman tomorrow?” - Cora Carmack

29. “Patience can be bitter but her fruit is always sweet.” - Habeeb Akande

30. “Stupid kissing. Stupid roaming hands. Stupid boys.” - Jessica Park

31. “I began with the desire to speak with the dead.” - Stephen Greenblatt

32. “It's about people who still are unaware. Therefore they strive to live by all means: love like no one before them loved, believe like no one ever believed, desire like no one else ever desired...” - Marius Ivaškevičius

33. “She nodded against me. “Do you need me to do anything?” I didn’t need a thing from her, but I wanted everything. I wanted her to leave Tyler, to love me, to want to live here with me for the rest of our lives. I wanted so damn much. ”Just go back to sleep, then enjoy the rest of the day with the girls. I’ll be back tonight.” ”I’ll be waiting her for you.” Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath in and held it. if only she knew what she did to me.” - Molly McAdams

34. “She hates everything that is not what she longs for.” - George Eliot

35. “Who people think they are and what people think they want is not really who they are or what they want.” - Laurie Frankel

36. “The trouble with being an angel on Earth was that he was still a man. He got hungry. He thirsted. His lungs clamored without the draw of air. And for this woman, the only one in a thousand years, his body and soul ached. The trick was to will his mind, and ignore the Earthly sensations, as he'd done so many times with pain and trouble. Desire was no different, a call of the flesh. He could divide himself-acknowledge the lust and act on intellect. But see, the trouble with being an angel was that he was still a man.” - Erin Kellison

37. “I looked down, unable to meet the intensity in Nat’s eyes. Tonight, my crush for Nat had moved beyond a crush. The chemistry between us was undeniable, and the more we clashed, the more we wanted each other." - Summer, Perfect Summer” - Kailin Gow

38. “Jelly had no brain per se but was in essence all brain, a shared consciousness programmed for desire. He had an appetite for everything, voraciously absorbing the culture that surrounded him and becoming it, only louder. In other words, he was extremely teenaged.” - Larry Doyle