32 Quotes by William B. Irvine

In a full-fledged case of desire, by way of contrast, a creature is able to form a mental representation of the thing it desires, compare the current state [sic] with the desired state, and initiate action to diminish these states. Only a creature with considerable brainpower will have these abilities.

...we can do some historical research to see how our ancestors lived. We will quickly discover that we are living in what to them would have been a dream world that we tend to take for granted things that our ancestors had to live without...

Most of us are “living the dream” living, that is, the dream we once had for ourselves.

Negative visualization, in other words, teaches us to embrace whatever life we happen to be living and to extract every bit of delight we can from it. But it simultaneously teaches us to prepare ourselves for changes that will deprive us of the things that delight us. It teaches us, in other words, to enjoy what we have without clinging to it.

We humans are unhappy in large part because we are insatiable; after working hard to get what we want, we routinely lose interest in the object of our desire. Rather than feeling satisfied, we feel a bit bored, and in response to this boredom, we go on to form new, even grander desires.

Stoicism, understood properly, is a cure for a disease. The disease in question is the anxiety, grief, fear, and various other negative emotions that plague humans and prevent them from experiencing a joyful existence.

After expressing his appreciation that his glass is half full rather than being completely empty, he will go on to express his delight in even having a glass: It could, after all, have been broken or stolen.

The problem is that “bad men obey their lusts as servants obey their masters,” and because they cannot control their desires, they can never find contentment.4.

Around the world and throughout the millennia, those who have thought carefully about the workings of desire have recognized this – that the easiest way for us to gain happiness is to learn how to want the things we already have.