Sickness occurs when we desire what we need and what's desirable with equal intensity, suffering our lack of perfection as if we were suffering for lack of bread.

Our desires cut across one another, and in this confused existence it is rare for happiness to coincide with the desire that clamoured for it.

We often confuse what we wish for with what is.

The more we desire for that which is superfluous, the more we meet with difficulties; our strength and possessions are spent in unnecessary things, and are wanting when required for that which is necessary.

...perversely, it is often more fun to want something than to have it.

Indeed, the very reason why we do not have this assurance is that we want so much more than the minimum necessities.

What we desire makes us vulnerable.

We shall suffer as long as our thoughts and actions are prompted by desires and fears.

We are ever striving after what is forbidden, and coveting what is denied us.

We often want one thing and pray for another, not telling the truth even to the gods.

We demand about everything of ourselves but discrimination in what we demand.

Too much, too many, and too often of what you want becomes what you don’t want.

Our way through life should not be difficult — but it is. The fact is that our lives are filled mostly with picking and choosing. "I want this, but not that." And because things are not anything other than the way they really are, we suffer. Nowhere is this more apparent and painful than when we are trying to find life after death. We so desperately want things to be the way they were. But they are not. So the longing itself becomes an additional source of suffering.

Our desires interweave with one another; and in the confusion of existence, it is seldom that a joy is promptly paired with the desire that longed for it.