Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.

What came up at age 49 is I realized that of all the things I'm interested in, the thing I'm most interested in is figuring out what makes people tick, why people think the way they do, why they act the way they do. And I realized that music is such a great way to investigate why people do what they do.

It is desire that engenders belief and if we fail as a rule to take this into account, it is because most of the desires that create beliefs end only with our own life.

I am going to tell you a secret. Everything is about wanting. Everything. Things happen because of people wanting. Watch closely, and you’ll see what I mean.

Desire of praise disposeth to laudable actions.

Men are driven by two principal impulses, either by love or by fear.

When I am perfectly clear, what is is what I want.

Some people wanted to get rich or famous, but my friends and I wanted to get real. We wanted to get deep. (Also, I suppose, we wanted to get laid.)

Every man has business and desire, Such as it is.

I think the balance is between what you can get, what you want and what wants you.

I don't know the difference between what I want and what I'm trained to want.

Everybody thinks himself so well supplied with common sense that even those most difficult to please. . . never desire more of it than they already have.

Pleasures are all alike simply considered in themselves: he that hunts, or he that governs the commonwealth, they both please themselves alike, only we commend that, whereby we ourselves receive some benefit.

Interest makes all seem reason that leads to it.

Each one should realize there is nothing in (us) which denies that which (we) desire.

Desires should never be justified,' Tehol said, wagging a finger. 'All you end up doing is illuminating the hidden reasons by virtue of their obvious absence.

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.

To succeed takes more than the desire to win. It also takes the acceptance that we could fail.

Our continual desire for praise ought to convince us of our mortality, if nothing else will.

People think they know what they want but they generally don't. Sometimes if they're lucky they'll get it anyways.

When you want to arrive at your goal more than you want to be doing what you are doing, you become stressed.

The action is in the interaction.

People who get what they want tend to be the ones who make the effort to know what they want.

When we feel a strong desire to thrust our advice upon others, it is usually because we suspect their weakness; but we ought rather to suspect our own.

Not realizing what you want is a problem of knowledge. Not pursuing what you want is a problem of motivation. Not achieving what you want is a problem of persistence.