Quotes
Nothing is ever what you want it to be. The harder you grab for it, the more deeply it cuts. And it mocks you for being foolish enough to reach for it at all. You come to fear touching anything at all, because you know that if you do, it will become terrible.
p. 310
Cravings are the mind seeking salvation or fulfillment in external things and in the future as a substitute for the joy of Being. p. 24
“[O]nly the sea is like a human being . . .always moving, always something deep in itself is stirring it. It never rests; it is always wanting, wanting, wanting. It hurries on; and then it creeps back slowly without having reached, moaning. It is always asking a question and it never gets the answer.”
"Death is the mother of beauty," said Henry.
"And what is beauty?"
"Terror."
[...]
"And if beauty is terror," said Julian, "then what is desire? We think we have many desires, but in fact we have only one. What is it?"
"To live," said Camilla.
"To live forever," said Bunny, chin cupped in his palm.
p. 39
But for half a minute she wished it was a different sort of day, even though she knew that nothing good could come from wanting at the world.
p. 79
At times, it seems to me that to be human is to want that which we cannot have. For some, this is power. For me, it is peace.
p. 853
How do I know that I don’t need what I want? I don’t have it.
'Look, Felicity,' says Howard, 'there's only one rule. Follow the line of your own desires.'
p. 84
Every act you have ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something. How about the time you gave a large contribution to the Red Cross? Yes, that is no exception to the rule. You gave the Red Cross the donation because you wanted to lend a helping hand; you wanted to do a beautiful, unselfish, divine act.
p. 40
No ego can last for long without the need for more. Therefore, wanting keeps the ego alive much more than having. The ego wants to want more than it wants to have.
Most people's lives are run by desire and fear. Desire is the need to add something to yourself in order to be yourself more fully. All fear is the fear of losing something, and thereby become diminished and be less. These two movements obscure the fact that being cannot be given or taken away. Being in its fullness is already within you, now. (Ch 5)
How wonderful to go beyond wanting and fearing in your relationships. Love does not want or fear anything. (Ch 8)
