c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
I'll show Dunky he's not the only one in the family who can rush foolishly into danger!
— Christopher Healy, The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw
I am not a hero in soul and never will be, but I am better than I was. Or so I tell myself; and for now, that is enough.
— Andrew Davidson, The Gargoyle
He loved her when she was angry. And he was convinced it was because she was her most honest in those moments. ~Ruin
— Lucian Bane, The Waking
Well, it turns out a hero's lot is not glory or reward, but sacrifice.
— Pittacus Lore, Secret Histories
The Fool in the Tarot deck frequently depicted a boy with a dog at his heels, staring at the sky while he walked blithely off a cliff, burdened only by a bundle on a stick. The diabolist had admitted a relationship to the card.No single detail was quite right, but much as something might appear similar if one were to unfocus their vision…The young diabolist walked with the sparrow at his shoulder, eyes on the windows without looking through the windows, walking forward as if he were afraid to stop. His burden here was the gas containers.No, he was burdened not just by the gas containers, but by some notion of responsibility.A man, when facing death, aspires to finish what he started.What had the custodian of the Thorburn estate started? What drove him?She knew he sought to do good and to vanquish evil, and she could surmise that both good acts and the existence of evil had touched him deeply.The Fool card was akin to the ace. Depending on the game being played, it was often the lowest card or the highest. Valueless or highly valued. Powerless or powerful.It all depended on context. He sought to kill the demon, and he would either catastrophically fail or succeed.This Fool sought to slay the metaphorical dragon. He felt his own mortality, which was quite possibly her fault, in part, and now he rushed to finish the task he’d set for himself. To better the world.The Fool was wrought with air – the clouds he gazed at, the void beyond the cliff, the feather in his cap, even the dog could often be found mid-step, bounding, just above the ground.He was a Fool wrought with a different element. The familiar didn’t quite fit for the departure from the air, but the traditional dog didn’t conjure ideas of air right off the bat either.What was he wrought with? That was another question that begged an answer.
— Wildbow, Pact
Just ask me to show you, and I will. I may be a virgin, a first time lover, but every second I can't do what burns in me to do, is an eternal fucking torment. ~Ruin
— Lucian Bane, The Waking
And you, are Ruin, the chosen Carnificem, and WOE is what you're all about, it's your purpose. Doom and Gloom. ~Caliber Creed
— Lucian Bane, The Waking
The only one is a hero - who builds bridges between cultures
—  and does not destroy them.
When you acknowledge the audience's shadow you become their hero.
— Luis Cubero, Business Storytelling Guide: Creating Business Presentations Using Storytelling Techniques
The hero's achievement, in short, is to affirm life.
— Carol S. Pearson
Myths of the heroes speak most eloquently of man's quest to choose life over death.
— Dorothy Norman, The Hero: Myth/Image/Symbol
(Episode 9. Hijikata finds Gintoki on a rooftop and challenges him to a duel to avenge Kondo's defeat earlier. Gintoki doesn't want to fight him, so breaks Hijikata's sword easily, and leaves. It's then revealed that Okita and Kondo had been watching them clash, from another rooftop.)Okita Sougou: "He's an interesting man. I'd like to cross swords with him, myself."Kondo:"Don't bother. He'll kick your ass, Sougou.""He's the kind of guy fighting another battle far away, even as a sword swings at his throat.""Fair or unfair, it doesn't matter to him."(Not knowing that Kondo & Okita were watching his duel from a high vantage point, Hijikata lights a cigarette and sits back.)Hijikata (watching the blue sky above him):"Sorry, Kondo-san. I lost to him, as well ...
— Kondo Gintama
Inspiration is someone who gives you freedom to think out of his own ways. He doesn't want you to believe in his own ideas.
— M.H. Rakib
It is hard to look a hero when mounted on a pig.
— George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons
The argument could be made that the word hero is overused. I do not think, however, that this is the case when referring to teachers.
— Steve Maraboli
I've done nothing for the past five years but try to be the hero who protects her. The problem? Heroines don't need protecting.
— Colleen Hoover, Maybe Someday
Lightsong met the man's eyes, then smiled broadly, looking down at the God King. "My life to yours," Lifesong said. "My breath become yours.
— Brandon Sanderson, Warbreaker
Then Walter died as he lived, he told his mate. A hero, a soldier, and a survivor who chose to protect what was precious to him. I don't think, if you could ask him, that he would have any regrets.
— Patricia Briggs, Cry Wolf
It is an extraordinary thing to meet your heroes and find them to be everything you hoped they would be.
— Simon Pegg, Nerd Do Well
A hero lives forever for the ones who carry on.
— Heather Dale
And it's funny how when somebody saves you, the first thing you want to do is save other people.
— Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
Those who remarked in the countenance of this young hero a dissolute audacity mingled with extreme haughtiness ... could not yet deny to his countenance that sort of comeliness which belongs to an open set of features, well formed by nature, modeled by art to the usual rules of courtesy, yet so far frank and honest, that they seemed as if they disclaimed to conceal the natural working of the soul.
— Walter Scott, Ivanhoe
We should like to have some towering geniuses, to reveal us to ourselves in color and fire, but of course they would have to fit into the pattern of our society and be able to take orders from sound administrative types.
— Joseph Priestley, 1733-1804
I’m not a superhero. I’m background. I’m a good person wrapped in mediocre soul. I want to be better. I really do. But even now in my greatest moment I know this is as good as it will ever get for me and it’s not that good. I have a small heart, a dark heart, a heart filled with exactly equal amounts of good and evil, one that is weak and will take us only so far, but for now it propels us higher and higher and higher.
— Charles Yu, Third Class Superhero
What's the point of being a hero when everyone thinks you're a villain?
— Ellen Hopkins, Smoke
He was always running or bounding, never just walking. He seemed always at the point of defeating the law of gravity.
— Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
Each journey is unique, and each seeker charts a new path. But it is infinitely easier to do so having at least some knowledge about the experiences of those who have gone before. When we learn about the many different heroic paths available to us, we understand that there is room for all of us to be heroic in our own unique ways.
— Carol S. Pearson, Awakening the Heroes Within: Twelve Archetypes to Help Us Find Ourselves and Transform Our World
He had acquired a reputation for possessing a noble character, and even for being something of a hero - or, at least, in the assessment of one contemporary commentator, one of those parties who are able to fulfil the public need in the event of genuine heroes being absent or, for any reason, unpalatable.
— K.J. Bishop, The Etched City
The opposite of a coward is one who knows and does the right thing at the right time even if it may cost them their own life.
— Joseph Skinner
You know you're like, my hero, right?
— Stuart Stutzman, Theories About Continental Drift
Heroes may die but they doesn't get tired.
— Amit Kalantri
Heroes are higher than their vulnerability that is why they are heroes.
— Amit Kalantri
As a general man I tried watching movies, playing sports, going to picnics and other entertainments but I still got bored, then I tried heroism and now I am hero, and I never get bored.
— Amit Kalantri
For happiness don't pursue satisfaction, but pursue heroism.
— Amit Kalantri
Finishing work makes you a man, finishing difficult work makes you a hero.
— Amit Kalantri
One courageous act can make you a hero but frequent courageous acts will keep you a hero.
— Amit Kalantri
You have worked too long in the life, now its time for heroism.
— Amit Kalantri
No true hero ever believes that they are one.
— Neal Shusterman, UnSouled
I'm the hero of this story, I don't need to be saved
— Regina Spektor
I need to give you one last bit of advice in the off chance this rather extraordinary and enviable situation in which you find yourself is actually true- that somehow you've fallen deep down into a Cordova story. I stared back at him. Be the good guy, he said. How do I know I'm the good guy? He pointed at me, nodding. A very wise question. You don't. Most bad guys think they're good. But there are a few signifiers. You'll be miserable. You'll be hated. You'll fumble around in the dark, alone and confused. You'll have little insight as to the true nature of things, not until the very last minute, and only if you have the stamina and the madness to go to the very, very end. But most importantly- and critically- you will act without regard for yourself. You'll be motivated by something that has nothing to do with the ego. You'll do it for justice. For grace. For love. Those large rather heroic qualities only the good have the strength to carry on their shoulders. And you'll listen.
— Marisha Pessl, Night Film
Serving my country was a life-changing experience for me. It was during those years that I realized the importance of commitment, dedication, honor, and discipline. I have never laughed so much; nor have I ever prayed so much. I made life-long friends. The leaders and heroes I served with helped shape me into the man I am today. I feel honored to have been a part of such a great tradition and grateful to others who have walked the same path. Thank you!
— Steve Maraboli
I see a man," she said softly. "A man with the roar of cannons still ringing in his ears. A man bloodied by life, but not beaten. A man with a scar that draws his mouth into a frown when he might actually long to smile.
— Teresa Medeiros, Yours Until Dawn
Why don't you just do it, then?" Racath hissed. "Just kill me. I dare you."Now, I assume you know what this is. You've seen this before in other stories - the part where the disgruntled villain stands over the hero. He is triumphant, the hero now at his mercy. But when commanded to slay him, he hesitates. He lowers his sword. And he says: "I cannot."If you are to take away but one thing from the words I have spoken, let it be this: there is a world of difference between "I Cannot" and "I will not". "I cannot" is a surrender. It implies a lack of options. Someone who says such a thing does so only because they have no other choice. They do not WISH to relent - in fact, they usually want to obey their mandate and destroy the hero at their feet. But they cannot, because the guilt is too unbearable. But that does not make him a better man; all that a man who says "I cannot" has done, is given in to the compulsion to repent.Allow me to make myself perfectly clear - I HAD other options. Easy options. Simple options. I could have killed Racath Thanjel that day. I could have killed him and all the others, too. I could have left them dead and bloody on that grassy hill, and gone trotting back to the Imperator's lap. I could have shrugged off the attrition that had dogged my every step, thought better of my disenssion, given up on all hope of absolution and accepted my damnation. And I could have spent the rest of eternity destroying God's green earth at Lavethion's side.I could have. It would have been so easy. So simple. So wrong. And I didn't want to.And so I took a sickened step away. Stabbed Osveta into the grass. Shook my head. And said: "I won't.
— S.G. Night, Dissension: the Second Act of Penance
A world without braves is a world without heroes, but a world without wisdom is a world of animals.
— M.F. Moonzajer
My friends wanted their names in the list of employees of some company, well I wanted my name in the list of the heroes of the world.
— Amit Kalantri
Look,” Liam said, “sometimes being a hero isn’t about getting the glory. It’s about doing what needs to be done.
— Christopher Healy, The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom
No one wants to go through life alone, fighting battles single-handedly their whole life. Not even the hardiest of heroes. That’s just a miserable existence. Everyone needs someone in their corner, right?...Even if you could,” I wrinkled my brow, “would you really want to? By all accounts, it gets lonely being your own hero.
— J.M.  Richards, Tall, Dark Streak of Lightning
...as of this moment there's the police department way, the federal law enforcement way, the military way... and my way. If you want me to function at my best then you're going to have to accept that I'm going to have to make up some of my own rules. I don't know enough about your playbook and, quite frankly, I don't like the way you operate. If I'm not a cop anymore then I'm something else, something new. Okay, then from here on out I'll decide what that is; and that includes building, shaping, and leading my team. My team, my rules.
— Jonathan Maberry, Patient Zero
I've never liked being looked at like I was a hero. I always wind up letting someone down. Sometimes I get lucky. Sometimes the only person who gets hurt is me.
— Seanan McGuire, Rosemary and Rue
Now... all opposed to being rescued, raise your hands, otherwise, I'd like to get the fuck out of here~Veiron, Her Demonic Angel ~
— Felicity Heaton
If I weren’t a gentleman, I would pound you into the ground right now.” He unfisted his hands in order to dismiss the temptation.
— Nicole Castro, The Duchess' Ring
Sometimes there were troubles but no one can be a hero without the heart being torn open.
— David Paul Kirkpatrick, The Address Of Happiness
Every damsel in distress deserves a hero...
— Tracy Anne Warren, Her Highness and the Highlander
People hide the truth to protect those they love!
— Craig Mercier, The Book of Craigisms
Dear Diary, the Heroine never cries.
— Amelia F. Jones
Put your f***ing finger down now before I break it off.
— Nicole Castro, The Appleton House
History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts.
— Ian Fleming, Casino Royale
Sing to me," she said. "That would be valiant, to raise your voice in this dark, lonely place, and it will be useful as well. Sing to me, sing loudly-drown out my dreams, keep me from remembering whatever wants me to remember it. Sing to me, my lord prince, if it please you. It may not seem a hero's task, but I would be glad of it.
— Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
God does not seem impressed by size or power or wealth. Faith is what he wants, and the heroes who emerge are heroes of faith, not strength or wealth.
— Philip Yancey, The Bible Jesus Read
Wrapped up in him, in his bad boy ways and his good guy heart, is my whole world. Somehow, while I wasn’t looking, I fell. And I fell hard. For my soul mate. For the love of my life. For my hero.
— M. Leighton
The hero is the one who goes beyond his ability to improve his skills, until he becomes able to improve, and perhaps even alter, the skills of others.
— محمد عبد الرحمن العريفي, Enjoy Your Life
There was something of Francis in the boy, something pure and genuine and flawed. That type didn't think twice before running headlong into a burning house or a young girl's arms.
— Johanna Moran, The Wives of Henry Oades
I could use you—if you pass the tests, of course. There are three of them. You have passed the first.""What are the other—" Hrun paused, his lips moved soundlessly and then he hazarded, "two?
— Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic
If I have to dangle myself in the water like a freaking minnow, I will. Those people don't deserve this type of treatment. ~Willow Mosby (Exposing ELE)
— Rebecca Gober, Exposing ELE
The Howeitat spread out along the cliffs to return the peasants' fire. This manner of going displeased Auda, the old lion, who raged that a mercenary village folk should dare to resist their secular masters, the Abu Tayi. So he jerked his halter, cantered his mare down the path, and rode out plain to view beneath the easternmost houses of the village. There he reined in, and shook a hand at them, booming in his wonderful voice: 'Dogs, do you not know Auda?' When they realized it was that implacable son of war their hearts failed them, and an hour later Sherif Nasir in the town-house was sipping tea with his guest the Turkish Governor, trying to console him for the sudden change of fortune.
— T.E. Lawrence
Everything is a hero: A lighthouse which gives light to us
—  weeds that provide shelter to little insects
The way he smiled with just one corner of his mouth said he’d show her a good time if she let him.
— Laura  Oliva, All That Glitters
A cynic by experience, a romantic by inclination and now a hero by necessity.
— David Gemmell, Legend
Jamie glanced at her notes. "So let's be honest, Jacks, can we? What is the best part of being an Angel? Is it the lifestyle? Is it the parties? The fame? What's your favourite part?" "Just having this chance," he said after considering. "And what chance is that?" Jamie asked. Jacks's blue eyes twinkled. "The chance to be a hero.
— Scott Speer
I recognized the handwriting, and my heart gave a skip; when I opened it I got a turn, for it began, 'To my beloved Hector,' and I thought, by God she's cheating on me, and has sent me the wrong letter by mistake. But in the second line was a reference to Achilles, and another to Ajax, so I understood she was just addressing me in terms which she accounted fitting for a martial paladin; she knew no better. It was a common custom at that time, in the more romantic females, to see their soldier husbands and sweethearts as Greek heroes, instead of the whore-mongering, drunken clowns most of them were. However, the Greek heroes were probably no better, so it was not far off the mark.
— George MacDonald Fraser, Flashman
Faster than the devil *times* Sharper than wind! That's the ultimate law of the hero!!
— Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto, Vol. 10: A Splendid Ninja
You're the hero my young romantic heart settled on so long ago, you're an absolute tiger at times, you're devious and not above playing a few tricks. I love you whatever you are all the time. I've loved you for ten years without stopping. I'll love you for as long as I have breath in my body. I'm committed to one man and I'm ready to face real life with him.
— Margaret Way, Hunt the Sun
Pyotr was the arcane hero, complete with buff body that you secretly whacked off to as a boy. And suddenly he turned and stared straight at him, some carnal fire burning in his eyes now. Pyotr walked for him slow and cautious like he was fighting his own control just then. Cliff could only gape and his eyes followed Pyotr’s hand as it reached out to clap his shoulder then moved him firmly for the car.
— Talon P.S., A Place for Cliff
As soon as one promises not to do something, it becomes the one thing above all others that one most wishes to do.
— Georgette Heyer, Venetia
...and for a moment I thought I loved her. But I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Sometimes the things we want most in life are the things that will kill us.
— Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
You can't treat royalty like people with normal perverted desires.
— Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Even the most pragmatic person fell victim at times to a longing for something other.
— Kate Morton, The Forgotten Garden
To want is to have a weakness.
— Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
Only God is capable of telling us what our rights and needs are. You have to surrender that right to Him.
— Joni Eareckson Tada, Joni: An Unforgettable Story
Often the best way to overcome desire is to satisfy it.
— W. Somerset Maugham
This is why it's good manners to give gifts in wrappers: so that, for a moment, that beast in all of us that makes us feel alive and keeps us from becoming angels can be satisfied. While a gift is in a wrapper, it can be anything, even that one indescribable thing that will make us happy enough to die in peace.
— Dexter Palmer, The Dream of Perpetual Motion
The real distinction between being great and being less great seems to be the extent to which we are willing to be pushed along by our own desires.
— Melanie Brown, Attaining Personal Greatness: One Book for Life
I like desires like childrenand their playsthat tease me now and then intoknowing life.
— Suman Pokhrel, Jeevanko Chheubaata
If you ignore what a man desires, and you deny the very source of his power.
— Walter Lippmann
So as long as you have not attained to desirelessness, as long as you have not renounced desires completely, you will go on taking births and wandering in different bodies. And howsoever different the forms of the body may be, their basic condition is always the same. The ills of the body are the same, regardless whether it’s a bird’s body or man’s. There is no difference in their miseries, because the fundamental misery is only one: the soul becoming confined in the body, the entering of the soul into the prison of body. A prison after all is a prison; it makes no difference whether its walls are circular or angular no matter what you think.
— Osho, Bliss: Living beyond happiness and misery
As humans we are inclined to feel that life must have a point. We have plans and aspirations and desires. We want to take constant advantage of all the intoxicating existence we've been endowed with. But what's life to a cell? Yet it's impulse to exist, to be, is every bit as strong as ours - perhaps even stronger. Life just wants to be.
— Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything
Jean's desires, like those of all men in love, were concentrated on the impossible.
— Marcel Proust, Jean Santeuil
One thing that gives meaning to our thinking, drive our understanding, and determines what makes us happy or unhappy is the very thing we seek to have, and we yearn for to be happy and feel alright. Aside that thing, life, the understanding of life, and how life should be lived is different all together.
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, Toxic In The Mind: daily use of the mind that kills you slowly
Never do what the devil provokes you to do
— Sunday Adelaja
God desires that through us the ones who do not know him will be convinced
— Sunday Adelaja
We have a problem
—  it is because we have not risen as high has he desires
When you give up your desires for the cause of making God known, revealing Him to your nation, you will surely be rewarded
— Sunday Adelaja
Throughout the life we keep asking for something or other from God but often forget that he has already given us the best thing at our birth - A beautiful Life.
— Mishra Ankit
One thing I am sure of is that when a long-standing desire gets fulfilled, it is certainly a moment of happiness but it may not lead us to eternal happiness, which lies in our heart, mind and thoughts.
— Balroop Singh
Frogs, ducks, rhinos, octopuses – whatever you desire. The world will be built new for you every morning. If you stay here, you can have whatever you want.’ Coraline sighed. ‘You really don’t understand, do you?’ she said. ‘I don’t want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn’t mean anything. What then?
— Neil Gaiman, Coraline
The demarcation between a positive and a negative desire or action is not whether it gives you a immediate feeling of satisfaction but whether it ultimately results in positive or negative consequences
— Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness
The dead praetor raised his sword. ''Our desires reveal us. They show us for who we really are. Someone has come come for you, Jason Grace.
— Rick Riordan, The Blood of Olympus
If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
— Epicurus
Take notice of those intuitive whispers from the heart, they represent your true desires.
— Steven Redhead, Unleash The Power of Your Heart and Mind
Get in touch with your intuitive and creative powers, bring your desires to life in order to create a life of bliss.
— Steven Redhead, Unleash The Power of Your Heart and Mind
Action is what will produce your desired results.
— Rosette Mugidde Wamambe
Life may become difficult when you are out of sync with your heart-felt desires.
— Steven Redhead, Unleash The Power of Your Heart and Mind
Life can become difficult when out of sync with your heart-felt desires.
— Steven Redhead, Life Is Simply A Game
Time should always by used well to maximise personal desires.
— Steven Redhead, Life Is Simply A Game
We are all artists painting our desires on the canvas of life and time.
— Steven Redhead, Unleash The Power of Your Heart and Mind
A martyrdom is always the design of God, for His love of men, to warn them and to lead them, to bring them back to His ways. It is never the design of man; for the true martyr is he who has become the instrument of God, who has lost his will in the will of God, and who no longer desires anything for himself, not even the glory of being a martyr.
— T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral
Only you can find yourself by losing yourself again and again in the deep darkness of your driving desires.
— Debasish Mridha
Your driving desires will determine what you become.
— Debasish Mridha
Sooner or later everyone is defeated by their desires.
— Rafael Yglesias, The Wisdom of Perversity
Human beings are not primarily thinking creatures. We are creatures driven by our loves.
— Matt      Chandler
For nurturing the mind, there’s nothing like paring your desires away to a very few. If you have few desires, there may still be some capricious whims in your mind, but they’ll be few. If you have many desires, there may be some enduring principles in your mind, but they’ll be few indeed.
— Mencius, Mencius
Women. They're irresistible that's for sure, and they love to remind us that they are the keepers of our desires.
— Jack Dancer, Detour Paris
A man who does not know God lives guided by the desires of his flesh.
— Sunday Adelaja
God desires that Christians would avoid repeating the disobedient mistakes of the Israelites.
— Sunday Adelaja
He who recollects a thing by which he was once pleased desires to possess it in the same circumstances as when he first was pleased by it. He who was never pleased is doomed to an eternal hard-on.
— Aleksandar Hemon, The Making of Zombie Wars
Accepting the fact that she did indeed have Alzheimer's, that she could only bank on two unacceptably effective drugs available to treat it, and that she couldn't trade any of this in for some other, curable disease, what did she want? Assuming the in vitro procedure worked, she wanted to live to hold Anna's baby and know it was her grandchild. She wanted to see Lydia act in something she was proud of. She wanted to see Tom fall in love. She wanted one more sabbatical year with John. She wanted to read every book she could before she could no longer read.She laughed a little, surprised at what she'd just revealed about herself. Nowhere in that list was anything about linguistics, teaching, or Harvard. She ate her last bite of cone. She wanted more sunny, seventy-degree days and ice-cream cones.
— Lisa Genova, Still Alice
The only thing we can try to do is to influence the direction scientists are taking. Since we might soon be able to engineer our desires too, perhaps the real questions facing us is not 'What do we want to become?', but "What do we want to want?' Those who are not spooked by this question probably haven't given it enough thought.
— Yuval Noah Harari, קיצור תולדות האנושות
Not every relation has the same fate, not every relation has the same name, some relations are in our deepest desire which can never be fulfilled, but they ever remains in our heart for ever,... there lies the purity of such relations...
— Debolina Bhawal
It is never late, pursuit your ambitions.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
If I could have anything, it would be a radio to ask NASA the safe path down the Ramp. Well, if I could have anything, it would be for the green-skinned yet beautiful Queen of Mars to rescue me so she can learn more about this Earth thing called “lovemaking.
— Andy Weir, The Martian
Fulfilled desires, like pleasures (even of the intrinsic kind), are states of achievement rather than default states. For instance, one has to work at satiating oneself, while hunger comes naturally. After one has eaten or taken liquid, bowel and bladder discomfort ensues quite naturally and we have to seek relief. One has to seek out pleasurable sensations, in the absence of which blandness comes naturally. The upshot of this is that we must continually work at keeping suffering (including tedium) at bay, and we can do so only imperfectly. Dissatisfaction does and must pervade life. There are moments, perhaps even periods, of satisfaction, but they occur against a background of dissatisfied striving. Pollyannaism may cause most people to blur out this background, but it remains there.
— David Benatar, Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence
We live in our desires rather than in our achievements
— George Moore
Only an unsatisfied preference is bad. In other words, he argues that although it is good to have fulfilled whatever desires one might have, one is not better off having a fulfilled desire than having no desire at all. By way of example, consider the case in which we ‘paint the tree nearest to Sydney Opera house red and give Kate a pill that makes her wish that the tree nearest to Sydney Opera House were red’*. Professor Fehige plausibly denies that we do Kate any favour in doing this. She is no better off than had we done nothing. What matters is not that people have satisfied desires but that they do not have unsatisfied ones. It is the avoidance of frustration that is important.* Fehige, Christoph, ‘A Pareto Principle for Possible People’, 513–14.
— David Benatar, Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence
We're all stuck between the realm of our desires, their possibilities and the realities of life.
— Huseyn Raza
Remember that our desires will not arrive by our schedule. If you really want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.
— Wayne W. Dyer, Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling
Awaken to the opportunities available for you today. It’s not too late to be, do, and have, whatever you so desire. It’s only late if you don’t begin today, the time is now. Go, make it happen!
— Bernard Kelvin Clive, Make it Happen! Enjoy 365 Days of Inspirational messages, Quotes and affirmations to live the life of your dreams.
He wanted to toast mad idealism, forbidden desires, the dreams that drove one to criminal acts. He wanted, quite starkly, oblivion.
— Paul Russell, The Coming Storm
i felt like i was wanting you more than ever..I want to fall asleep with the pure sound of your heart beat, wrapped around your warm arms, feeling your skin against mine and wake up with the sound of your sweet voice and a beautiful smile on a saturday morning.I want to kiss you from head to toe and drown in your carefree laughI want the entirety of you and love you endlessly.....when i wake up this morning and pondered of my wantsit break my heart to realise that my simple wants are nowhere near achievable....
— gagabriel
You are worthy and deserving of your desires. Following your heart’s Desire is the same as living God’s will, when you listen to your inner self and wisdom; you are actually carrying out God’s intention.
— Malti Bhojwani, Don't Think of a Blue Ball
People make themselves unhappy by desiring and praising only one thing, by becoming too one-sided in trying to find contentment. If we were just in harmony with ourselves we would enjoy the things of this world much more. But when we have an inordinate amount of desires and aspirations, we only listen to them, we are incapable of understanding the essential innocence of things outside ourselves. Unfortunately, we often term those things important that are the objects of our emotions, and those things that have no relation to our desires are called unimportant; however, many times it is exactly the opposite.
— Adalbert Stifter, Indian Summer
Your repressed feelings desperately try to climb to the surface but fail to do so, and in therapy we seek to reveal -- to uncloak, if you will -- these unconscious desires, the things that your mind tries to repress, those secrets of your soul.
— Allan Dare Pearce, Hitler Burns Detroit
We are all artists painting our desires on the canvas of life.
— Steven Redhead, Unleash The Power of Your Heart and Mind
Life becomes difficult when out of sync with your heart-felt desires.
— Steven Redhead, Unleash The Power of Your Heart and Mind
Each new day offers the chance to start afresh, to achieve those things you most desires.
— Steven Redhead, Unleash The Power of Your Heart and Mind
Dare to dream again.For dreaming is the language of your soul,And nothing your soul truly desires could ever be wrong or impossible.
— Jacob Nordby
You are not what you want. You are what wants you back.
— Gary Shteyngart, Little Failure
Thousands of desires, each worth dying for...Many of them I have realized...yet I yearn for more...Why should my killer (lover) be afraid? No one will hold her responsible,For the blood which will continuously flow through my eyes all my life.
— Avinash Advani
Live it already, write about it from the point of view of already having it, and be so happy and grateful at its impending arrival.
— Stephen Richards, How to Get Everything You Can Imagine: Volume 1: How Mind Power Works
When anyone is going wrong, it is a mistake to warn him not to go further. It is also a mistake to leave him alone. The proper course is to call his attention to something better, and frame our conversation in such a way that he becomes wholly absorbed in the better. He will then forget his old mistakes, his old faults and his old desires, and will give all his life and power to the building of that better which has engaged his new interest.
— Christian D. Larson
Now, as an adult, my hopes for the future were simple: I wanted to be alone, and to be surrounded by flowers. It seemed, finally, that I might get exactly what I wanted.
— Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers
Nothing outside of yourself can prevent you from achieving all of your hopes, dreams and desires….
— James A. Murphy, The Waves of Life Quotes and Daily Meditations
You can become even a co-creator of this universe... an assurance coming from the Ancient Wisdom
—  provided you bear an appropriate WILL...
The Spirit filters through what I want and shows me who I am.
— E'yen A. Gardner
We have to believe that the desires we have in our hearts will be fulfilled if we continue to trust and believe in him and His Word.
— Chloe M. Gooden, Not Tonight : My Worth Is Far Above Rubies
Depression is possessed by Gravity whereas A deep aspiration fueled by Will can defy any Gravity...
— Dinesh Kumar, Destiny Re scripted
The remedy of disharmony is not in surrender but in understanding more about ones self & acting out of pure Will... Desire 2 will
—  The art of transforming a desire into a formidable force of True Will
Her gaze met his. "What do you want more than anything?"Right now, he felt like he could gaze into her green eyes for a century or two. They were amazing, the way they flared with anger, twinkled with humor, or softened with compassion. "I want to be loved, honestly and truly loved, for who I am. And I want to love a woman with all my heart for all my life. I want to ache for her mind, for her body, for her companionship."Her eyes widened. "Oh." (Toni & Ian)
— Kerrelyn Sparks, All I Want for Christmas is a Vampire
It is hard to fight with one's heart's desires; whatever it wishes to get, it purchases at the cost of the soul.
— Lawrence Durrell, Justine
...where our desires "come from"; that is a dark, winding road.
— John Irving, In One Person
A heart anchored in money will only drift away.
— Anthony Liccione
Our desires are guided by what we believe to be good or bad; our beliefs are directed by our knowledge; our knowledge, in turn, is again a manipulation of our desires. Our Will, during this inexorable revolution, serves as the force, increasing, decreasing, or at worst, maintaining the pace.
— Raheel Farooq
All their life, people work hard to earn money, and they never earn enough money to fulfill their dreams. Is this a paradox?
— Saurabh Sharma
Himself an ugly man, insignificantof appearance, he prized very highly comeliness in others.
— W. Somerset Maugham
When your passions and desires align you cannot hold them back.
— M.F. Moonzajer
She doesn't understand that doors, walls, fences, ceilings - they're helpless to keep out what determinedly desires to get in.
— Sonya Hartnett, Surrender
And while his mother's lecture had gone over his seven-year-old head, Pasquale saw now what she meant--how much easier life would be if our intentions and our desires could always be aligned.
— Jess Walter, Beautiful Ruins
We could not be fulfilled if we weren't inauthentic some of the time—inauthentic, that is, in relation to such things as our passing desires to throttle our children, poison our spouse, or end our marriage over a dispute about changing a lightbulb.
— Alain de Botton
I couldn't pick just one.The moment I'd touched the sugar packet, a thousand thoughts cascaded through my
— Lisa Mangum, After Hello
If you surrender your free will, then someone is bound to take the reins and lead you to a place that is not of your own true desire.
— Steven Redhead, The Solution
Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff.
— Frank Zappa
The world would not be in such a snarl, had Marx been Groucho instead of Karl.
— Irving Berlin
In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat.
— Leon Trotsky
You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But in your existing society private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths. You reproach us, therefore, with intending to do away with a form of property, the necessary condition for whose existence is the non-existence of any property for the immense majority of society.In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so: that is just what we intend.
— Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
He was a commander in the Russian army at a time when the Russians were our enemies and still part of the Soviet Union . This wasn't very long ago, Alex.The collapse of communism. It was only in 1989 that the Berlin Wall came down." She stopped. "I suppose none of this means very much to you.""Well, it wouldn't," Alex said. "I was only two years old.
— Anthony Horowitz, Skeleton Key
I would say, if you like, that the party is like an out-moded mathematics...that is to say, the mathematics of Euclid. We need to invent a non-Euclidian mathematics with respect to political discipline.
— Alain Badiou, The Concept of Model: An Introduction to the Materialist Epistemology of Mathematics
Fascism is the stage reached after communism has proved an illusion.
— Friedrich A. Hayek
Here's your first problem," he said, pointing at a sentence. "'Religion is the opium of the people.' Well, I don't know about people, but I think you'll find that the opium of pirates is actual opium.
— Gideon Defoe, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists
The control of the production of wealth is the control of human life itself.
— Hilaire Belloc
True enough, the country is calm. Calm as a morgue or a grave, would you not say?
— Václav Havel
During the night two delegates of the railwaymen were arrested. The strikers immediately demanded their release, and as this was not conceded, they decided not to allow trains leave the town. At the station all the strikers with their wives and families sat down on the railway track-a sea of human beings. They were threatened with rifles salvoes. The workers bared their breast and cried, "Shoot!" A salvo was fired into the defenceless seated crowd, and 30 to 40 corpses, among them women and children, remained on the ground. On this becoming known the whole town of Kiev went to strike on the same day. The corpses of the murdered workers were raised on high by the crowd and carried round in mass demonstration.
— Rosa Luxemburg
The difference between communism and socialism is that under socialism central planning ends with a gun in your face, whereas under communism central planning begins with a gun in your face.
— Kevin D. Williamson, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism
Most of them don't know what communism is, could not pick it out of a lineup. They only know what anticommunism is. The two are practically unrelated.
— Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna
The American Indians were Communists. They were. Every anthropologist will tell you they were Communists. No rich, no poor. If somebody needed something the community chipped in.
— Pete Seeger
Just as King Midas turned everything to gold, Stalin turned everything to mediocrity.
— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The First Circle
Why do people have memories? It would be easier to die - anything to stop remembering.
— Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate
And even in the fever of epidemic arrests, when people leaving for work said farewell to their families every day, because they could not be certain they would return at night, even then almost no one tried to run away and only in rare cases did people commit suicide. And that was exactly what was required. A submissive sheep is a find for a wolf.
— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956
Communism is an aggressive religion of the species.
— Fulton J. Sheen, Life Is Worth Living
I was not extremely patriotic about Mother Russia. I played their game, pretending. You have to deal with, you know, party people, KGB. Horrifying.
— Mikhail Baryshnikov
They still possess virtues which might cause shame to most Christians. No hospitals are needed among them, because there are neither mendicants nor paupers as long as there are any rich people among them. Their kindness, humanity, and courtesy not only make them liberal with what they have, but cause them to possess hardly anything except in common. A whole village must be without corn before any individual can be obliged to endure privation. They divide the produce of their fisheries equally with all who come
— Reuben Gold Thwaites, The Jesuit relations and allied documents [microform]: travels and explorations of the Jesuit missionaries in New France, 1610-1791
The Fascist utopia, like that of the Communists, was false, and generated immense suffering. But there were those who dreamed it sincerely.
— Norman Davies, Europe
Stalin goes to visit one of the collectives outside of Moscow,” began Kolya in his joke-telling voice. “Wants to see how they’re getting on with the latest Five-Year Plan. ‘Tell me, comrade,’ he asks one farmer. ‘How did the potatoes do this year?’ ‘Very well, Comrade Stalin. If we piled them up, they would reach God.’ ‘But God does not exist, Comrade Farmer.’ ‘Nor do the potatoes, Comrade Stalin.
— David Benioff, City of Thieves
[T]he heart is a very unreliable coinpass, and even will and knowledge, as all ideological factors in general, are not to be trusted as guides if they are without any material basis…. [I]t is not love nor help which is the guiding rule of our time, but hammer or anvil. In reality it is thus: who does not want to be a servant must try to become a master. Under such conditions it is idle to hope that people will sacrifice realities for ideal precepts. We are not sentimental enough to expect such things. Though we use moral arguments in our struggle against the bourgeois, we do all we can to stimulate our class consciousness.
— Joseph Dietzgen
We are marching in a compact group along a precipitous and difficult path, firmly holding each other by the hand. We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we have to advance almost constantly under their fire. We have combined, by a freely adopted decision, for the purpose of fighting the enemy, and not of retreating into the neighbouring marsh, the inhabitants of which, from the very outset, have reproached us with having separated ourselves into an exclusive group and with having chosen the path of struggle instead of the path of conciliation. And now some among us begin to cry out: Let us go into the marsh! And when we begin to shame them, they retort: What backward people you are! Are you not ashamed to deny us the liberty to invite you to take a better road! Oh, yes, gentlemen! You are free not only to invite us, but to go yourselves wherever you will, even into the marsh. In fact, we think that the marsh is your proper place, and we are prepared to render you every assistance to get there. Only let go of our hands, don't clutch at us and don't besmirch the grand word freedom, for we too are "free" to go where we please, free to fight not only against the marsh, but also against those who are turning towards the marsh!
— Vladimir Lenin, What Is to Be Done?
We ate away, reminiscing about our victories over the enemies from different streets and villages and competing with each other in casting curses. A few golden butterflies and dragonflies were fluttering around us. The afternoon air was warm and clean, and the town below us seemed like a green harbor full of white sails.
— Ha Jin, Under the Red Flag
[It is b]etter to die on the losing side than to live under communisim.
— Whittaker Chambers
Politically, he was a humanitarian who did know right from left and was trapped uncomfortably between the two. He was constantly defending his Communist friends to his right-wing enemies and his right-wing friends to his Communist enemies, and he was thoroughly detested by both groups, who never defended him to anyone because they thought he was a dope.
— Joseph Heller, Catch-22