“All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.”
Aristotle
Aristotle is well-known for his works on politics, poetry, theater, logic, and even biology. He was a tutor to Alexander the Great and served as the head of the Lyceum in Athens. He wrote many books but among them, his work titled “Metaphysics” is regarded as one of the most important philosophical works of all time. Desire is a hot topic in Aristotle’s philosophy because it is what motivates us to do anything at all. Surprisingly enough though, he states that “desire cannot be deficient nor excessive” meaning that we always want what we don’t have and never want what we do have. It is our nature to be discontent with our situation and the only way to find happiness is by changing ourselves through virtues such as courage or justice.