Other related topics at:
Virtue and Vice
696. Desire
"It is very common for us to desire most what we are least
qualified to obtain."
Johnson: Rambler #61 (October 16, 1750)
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709. Desire; Vanity
"Most of the conditions of life, which raise the envy of the
timorous, and raise the ambition of the daring, are empty shows
of felicity, which, when they 
become familiar, lose their power
of delighting."
Johnson: Rambler #66 (November 3, 1750)
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1,319. Ambition; Desire
"Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between
his desires and his enjoyments; any enlargement of wishes is
therefore equally destructive to happiness with the diminution of
possession, and he that teaches another to long for what he never
shall obtain is no less an enemy to his quiet than if he had
robbed him of part of his patrimony."
Johnson: Rambler #163 (October 8, 1751)
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1,431. Desire
"The negative infelicity which proceeds, not from the pressure of
suffering, but the absence of enjoyments, will always yield to
the remedies of reason."
Johnson: Rambler #186 (December 28, 1751)
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1,486. Desire
"Every desire, however innocent, grows dangerous, as by long
indulgence it becomes ascendant in the mind."
Johnson: Rambler #207 (March 10, 1752)
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1,537. Desire; The Grass Is Always
Greener...
That the happiness of man may still remain imperfect, as wants in
this place are easily supplied, new wants likewise are easily
created; every man, in surveying the shops of London, sees
numberless instruments and conveniencies, of which, while he did
not know them, he never felt the need; and yet, when use has made
them familiar, wonders how life could be supported without them.
Thus it comes to pass, that our desires always increase with our
possessions; the knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed,
impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.
Johnson: Adventurer #67 (June 26, 1753)
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1,593. Desire; Satisfaction
"Many of our miseries are merely comparative: we are often made
unhappy, not by the presence of any real evil, but by the absence
of some fictitious good; of something which is not required by
any real want of nature, which has not in itself any power of
gratification, and which neither reason nor fancy would have
prompted us to wish, did we not see it in the possession of
others."
Johnson: Adventurer #111 (November 27, 1753)
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1,594. Desire; Value
"For a mind diseased with vain longings after unattainable
advantages, no medicine can be prescribed, but an impartial
enquiry into the real worth of that which is so ardently desired.
It is well known, how much the mind, as well as the eye, is
deceived by distance; and, perhaps, it will be found, that of
many imagined blessings it may be doubted, whether he that wants
or possesses them has more reason to be satisfied with his
lot."
Johnson: Adventurer #111 (November 27, 1753)
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1,595. Desires; Happiness
"It deserves to be considered, whether the want of that which can
never be gained, may not easily be endured."
Johnson: Adventurer #111 (November 27, 1753)
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1,602. Desire; Happiness
"Every man may grow rich by contracting his wishes, and by quiet
acquiescence in what has been given him, supply the absence of
more."
Johnson: Adventurer #119 (December 25, 1753)
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1,603. Custom; Desires; Time
"As we lose part of our time because it steals away silent and
invisible, and many an hour is passed before we recollect that it
is passing; so unnatural desires insinuate themselves unobserved
into the mind, and we do not perceive that they are gaining upon
us, till the pain which they give us awakens us to notice. No man
is sufficiently vigilant to take account of every minute of his
life, or to watch every motion of his heart. Much of our time
likewise is sacrificed to custom; we trifle, because we see
others trifle; in the same manner, we catch from example the
contagion of desire; we see all about us busied in pursuit of
imaginary good, and begin to bustle in the same chase, lest
greater activity should triumph over us."
Johnson: Adventurer #119 (December 25, 1753)
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1,605. Desires
"An ardent wish, whatever be its object, will always be able to
interrupt tranquillity."
Johnson: Adventurer #119 (December 25, 1753)
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1,606. Desires; Value
"To prize every thing according to its real use ought to
be the aim of a rational being. There are few things which can
much conduce to happiness, and, therefore, few things to be
ardently desired."
Johnson: Adventurer #119 (December 25, 1753)
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1,632. Appearance; Desires; Happiness;
Poverty
"The species of happiness most obvious to the observation of
others, is that which depends upon the goods of fortune; yet even
this is often fictitious. There is in the world more poverty
than is generally imagined; not only because many whose
possessions are large have desires still larger, and many measure
their wants by the gratifications which others enjoy: but great
numbers are pressed by real necessities which it is their chief
ambition to conceal, and are forced to purchase the appearance of
competence and cheerfulness at the expence of many comforts and
conveniencies of life."
Johnson: Adventurer #120 (December 29, 1753)
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1,678. Desires
"If the extent of the human view could comprehend the whole frame
of the universe, I believe it would be found invariably true,
that Providence has given that in greatest plenty, which the
condition of life makes of greatest use; and that nothing is
penuriously imparted, or placed far from the reach of man, of
which a more liberal distribution, or more easy acquisition,
would increase real and rational felicity."
Johnson: Idler #37 (December 30, 1758)
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1,679. Desires; Simplicity
"What we really need we may readily obtain; so readily, that far
the greater part of mankind has, in the wantonness of abundance,
confounded natural with artificial desires, and invented
necessities for the sake of employment, because the mind is
impatient of inaction, and life is sustained with so little
labour, that the tediousness of idle time cannot otherwise be
supported."
Johnson: Idler #37 (December 30, 1758)
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1,680. Desires; Poverty
"Plenty is the original cause of many of our needs; and even the
poverty, which is so frequent and distressful in civilized
nations, proceeds often from that change of manners which
opulence has produced. Nature makes us poor only when we want
necessaries; but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of
superfluities."
Johnson: Idler #37 (December 30, 1758)
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1,681. Desires; Satisfaction;
Simplicity
"That curiosity which always succeeds ease and plenty, was
undoubtedly given us as a proof of capacity which our present
state is not able to fill, as a preparative for some better mode
of existence, which shall furnish employment for the whole soul,
and where pleasure shall be adequate to our powers of
fruition."
Johnson: Idler #37 (December 30, 1758)
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1,728. Corruption; Desires
"The doctrine of self-denial is not weakened in itself by the
errors of those who misinterpret or misapply it; the encroachment
of the appetites upon the understanding is hourly perceived; and
the state of those whom sensuality has enslaved, is known to be
in the highest degree despicable and wretched."
Johnson: Idler #52 (April 14, 1759)
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1,731. Desires
"To deny early and inflexibly, is the only art of checking the
importunity of desire, and of preserving quiet and innocence.
Innocent gratifications must be sometimes withheld; he that
complies with all lawful desires will certainly lose his empire
over himself, and in time either submit his reason to his
wishes, and think all his desires are lawful, or dismiss his
reason as troublesome and intrusive, and resolve to snatch what
he may happen to wish, without inquiring about right and
wrong."
Johnson: Idler #52 (April 14, 1759)
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1,732. Desires
"No man whose appetites are his masters, can perform the duties
of his nature with strictness and regularity; he that would be
superior to external influences must first become superior to his
own passions."
Johnson: Idler #52 (April 14, 1759)
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1,733. Abstinence; Desires
"To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence,
which one of the Fathers observes to be not a virtue, but
the ground-work of virtue. By forbearing to do what may
innocently be done, we may add hourly new vigour to resolution,
and secure the power of resistance when pleasure or interest
shall lend their charms to guilt."
Johnson: Idler #52 (April 14, 1759)
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1,868. Desires; Value
"Value is more frequently raised by scarcity than by use. That
which lay neglected when it was common, rises in estimation as
its quantity becomes less. We seldom learn the true want of what
we have, till it is discovered that we can have no more."
Johnson: Idler #103 (April 5, 1760)
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