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“In truth, it is not want, but rather abundance, that creates avarice.” Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Michel de Montaigne
“We were closely pinched to bring our wants within our means; but the jail stood over the way, and I had a wholesome dread of the consequences of running in debt.” Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom
“I wanted the whole world or nothing.” Charles Bukowski, Post Office
“After the primary necessities of food and raiment, freedom is the first and strongest want of human nature.” John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women
“How I feel is that if I wanted anything I'd take it. That's what I've always thought all my life. But it happens that I want you, and so I just haven't room for any other desires.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned
“Even if you don’t have all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don’t have that you don’t want.” Bob Dylan, Chronicles, Volume One
“our labour preserves us from three great evils—weariness, vice, and want.” Voltaire, Candide
“Are these things really better than the things I already have? Or am I just trained to be dissatisfied with what I have now? Am I just under a spell that says nothing is ever good enough?” Chuck Palahniuk, Lullaby
“people need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want.” Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
“We are often unable to tell people what they NEED to know, because they WANT to know something else, and would therefore only misunderstand what we said.” George MacDonald, Lilith
“to be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.” Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness
“Love Jo all your days, if you choose, but don't let it spoil you, for it's wicked to throw away so many good gifts because you can't have the one you want.” Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
“Anything we want, we're trained to want.” Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters
“When you get used to that kind of life—of never having anything you want—then you stop knowing what it is you want.” Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
“We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come.” Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
“You know how advice is. You only want it if it agrees with what you wanted to do anyway.” John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent
“She said she knew we were safe with you, and always would be, because once, when she asked you to, you'd given up the thing you most wanted.” Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence
“One of the most important questions a woman can ask herself: What do I really want—and what is my spirit telling me is the best way to proceed?” Oprah Winfrey, What I Know For Sure
“Offer them what they secretly want and they of course immediately become panic-stricken.” Jack Kerouac, On the Road
“If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell.” Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
“In making even horizontal and clear inspections we colour and mould according to the wants within us whatever our eyes bring in.” Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd
“I want to see life. I want to hold it in my hands. I want to leave a footprint on the sand of a desert island. I want to play football with people. I want . . . I want everything.” Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
“We knew exactly what we wanted in each other. And even so, it ended. One day it stopped, as if the film simply slipped off the reel.” Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance

Related topics

desire misunderstanding life love knowledge happiness freedom fear work woman evil society eyes achievement contradiction ambition human nature sacrifice way consumerism

Related authors

Haruki Murakami (2)
Chuck Palahniuk (2)
Michel de Montaigne (1)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1)
Paulo Coelho (1)
John Steinbeck (1)
Neil Gaiman (1)
Charles Bukowski (1)
Milan Kundera (1)
Bertrand Russell (1)
Louisa May Alcott (1)
Thomas Hardy (1)
Bob Dylan (1)
Voltaire (1)
Frederick Douglass (1)
Oprah Winfrey (1)
George MacDonald (1)
Edith Wharton (1)
John Stuart Mill (1)
Sylvia Plath (1)

Related sources

Post Office (1)
The Alchemist (1)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1)
The Conquest of Happiness (1)
The Winter of Our Discontent (1)
The Beautiful and Damned (1)
The Subjection of Women (1)
The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (1)
Little Women (1)
Invisible Monsters (1)
What I Know For Sure (1)
Far from the Madding Crowd (1)
Lilith (1)
The Age of Innocence (1)
The Graveyard Book (1)
Candide (1)
Dance Dance Dance (1)
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1)
Chronicles, Volume One (1)
On the Road (1)