"Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly answers our expectation"
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Desire writes checks reality cannot cash. Hubbard points to the stubborn gap between what the mind imagines and what the world can deliver. Anticipation spins a flawless image; experience, even when good, is textured, finite, and compromised. The first sip of fulfillment is real, but it fades, and what lingers is the outline of what we expected and did not get. That gap is disappointment, not because the thing lacked value, but because expectation expanded beyond what any outcome could satisfy.
Psychology now calls this the impact bias and hedonic adaptation: we overestimate how lasting and intense our satisfaction will be, and we quickly adjust to whatever we attain. Hubbard states it more bluntly and more universally. Desire is not broken; it is built to move the horizon as we approach it. This is why even peak moments feel oddly haunted by the next goal. The words never thoroughly answers carry the ache of completeness denied. Enough is a moving target.
He wrote in an America awash in advertising and mass production, where promises were scaled up as quickly as goods. As a leader of the Roycroft movement, he championed handcraft, process, and the dignity of work against the glitter of industrial abundance. Read against that backdrop, the line doubles as a cultural critique: consumer desire will always promise a life that no purchase can deliver.
The counsel is not to stop wanting, but to reframe wanting. Treat desire as compass, not destination. Anchor satisfaction in the doing rather than the having, in skill, craft, service, and relationships, where meaning accrues through process. Temper expectations, notice sufficiency, and let gratitude right-size the imagination. Then the inevitable shortfall loses its sting, and desire regains its proper role: to energize our striving without enslaving our peace.
Psychology now calls this the impact bias and hedonic adaptation: we overestimate how lasting and intense our satisfaction will be, and we quickly adjust to whatever we attain. Hubbard states it more bluntly and more universally. Desire is not broken; it is built to move the horizon as we approach it. This is why even peak moments feel oddly haunted by the next goal. The words never thoroughly answers carry the ache of completeness denied. Enough is a moving target.
He wrote in an America awash in advertising and mass production, where promises were scaled up as quickly as goods. As a leader of the Roycroft movement, he championed handcraft, process, and the dignity of work against the glitter of industrial abundance. Read against that backdrop, the line doubles as a cultural critique: consumer desire will always promise a life that no purchase can deliver.
The counsel is not to stop wanting, but to reframe wanting. Treat desire as compass, not destination. Anchor satisfaction in the doing rather than the having, in skill, craft, service, and relationships, where meaning accrues through process. Temper expectations, notice sufficiency, and let gratitude right-size the imagination. Then the inevitable shortfall loses its sting, and desire regains its proper role: to energize our striving without enslaving our peace.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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