Object Of Desire Quotes

“He loved her in spite of her unlovableness. Armande had many trying, thought not necessarily rare, traits, all of which he accepted as absurd clues in a clever puzzle.”
― Vladimir Nabokov

“The gown is the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen,' I say to her, as I can pay her no other way without insult. It has been a long time since I have been given a gift, barbed though it may be. 'It does feel as though it might come from a dream.'

That makes Habetrot's cheeks pink. 'Good. Maybe you will come back and tell me how the Prince of Sunlight liked the Queen of Night.'

Embarrassed, I step out into the hall, wondering how she could believe that a dress- no matter how beautiful- could make me into an object of desire.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“He loved her in spite of her unlovableness. Armande had many trying, though not necessarily rare, traits, all of which he accepted as absurd clues in a clever puzzle.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Transparent Things

“We never... recover from our first false solution to feeling frustrated – the inventing of an ideal object of desire with whom we will never feel the frustration we fear. The ideal person in our minds becomes a refuge from realer exchanges with realer people.”
― Adam Phillips, Missing Out: In Praise of the Unlived Life

“In the taking of accountability, one gives power to the one with the desired thing. But the true desired is the desire itself, and in so doing, one bears suffering towards the missing thing, which is the other, which is also the powerful person. Then, in either the attaining, or the half-attaining and giving up on the rest of it, the person achieves the removal of the desire- thus to him then it becomes nothing. Thus, he understands that the suffering, and the ‘accountability’- was simply a giving of power to the other and an ultimately unneccessary suffering.”
― Connor Patrick Sullivan