Desire

Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning.
Desire, the primal seed and germ of the Spirit.
-Rig Veda

A madman stood 

In the middle of town.

Thousands were going and coming

To and fro on all sides.

He shouted:

"Going in a hundred directions

How can you get anywhere?

You have a single heart

But many and many a heart's desire.

-Attar of Neishapur

Desires are too numerous to count,

since they rise up endlessly like waves in the ocean.

Even if the stars are numbered, desires are not.

The desires of even a single individual are countless -

and what about the totality of them?

Each desire is too vast to be satisfied, because it is insatiable;

too strong to be resisted; and too subtle to be eluded.

-Tripura Rahasya

And thou shalt find thy knowledgeable desire
Grow large as all the regions of thy soul,
Whose firmament doth cover the whole of Being,
And of created purpose reach the ends.
-Lascelles Abercrombie

Look into the nature of desire,
and there is boundless light.
-Padmasambhava

I did not have to ask my heart what it wanted,
because of all the desires I have ever known
just one did I cling to for it was the essence of all desire:
to know beauty.
-Saint John of the Cross

The only desire that remains true for all times and places
is the desire for fulfillment.
All other desires are manifestations of that one desire:
the desire for completion, for self-realization.
-Harish Johari

There is really only one fundamental desire
the desire for spiritual perfection.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan

Desire for Reality
leads to the annihilation of all desire.
-Anandamayi Ma

Renounce desire a hundred times
or else not once will you embrace your Desire.
-'Araqi

If your desires are not in accord with your spirit,
sacrifice them, and you will come to the end of your journey.
-Attar

If you make love with the divine now,
in the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire.
-Kabir