“Our desires cut across one another, and in this confused existence it is rare for happiness to coincide with the desire that clamoured for it.”

“Our desires interweave with one another; and in the confusion of existence, it is seldom that a joy is promptly paired with the desire that longed for it.”

“The laborious process of causation which sooner or later will bring about every possible effect, including, consequently, those which one believed to be least possible, naturally slow at times, is rendered slower still by our desire (which in seeking to accelerate only obstructs it), by our very existence, and comes to fruition only when we have ceased to desire, and sometimes ceased to live.”

“Our slightest desire, though unique as a chord, nevertheless includes the fundamental notes on which the whole of our life is built. And sometimes, if we were to eliminate one of them, even one that we do not hear, that we are not aware of, one that has no connexion with the object of our quest, we would nevertheless see our whole desire for that object disappear.”

“For, just as in the beginning it is formed by desire, so afterwards love is kept in existence only by painful anxiety. ”

“The bonds that unite another person to our self exist only in our mind.”

“Desire makes everything blossom; possession makes everything wither and fade. ”