Desire

Desire is the soul's restless reaching toward what it lacks; eros is the force that drives the ascent from bodily appetite to the vision of the Good.

Desire is natural appetite directed by reason toward the good; virtue is the habit of desiring rightly.

Desires are endless and unsatisfiable; the wise person finds peace by recognizing nature's limits.

Disordered desire is the root of sin; the soul finds rest only when its loves are rightly ordered toward God.

Desire is the rational appetite's movement toward the good apprehended by the intellect; the will naturally desires God as its final end.

Desire is the very essence of a human being: the striving by which each thing persists in its own being.

Desire is mechanical motion toward an object; happiness is the continual success of desire, and there is no final end.

Desire belongs to our animal nature; moral action requires acting from duty against the pull of inclination.

Desire operates beneath consciousness as libido, shaped by repression, sublimation, and the conflict between the pleasure principle and reality.