Literary notes about craving (AI summary)
In literature, the word "craving" is often employed to capture both physical and metaphysical desires, serving as a bridge between tangible needs and the more elusive longings of the human spirit. Authors use it to depict fundamental impulses, such as hunger or thirst, as well as more abstract pursuits like the yearning for love, knowledge, or validation [1, 2, 3]. Sometimes craving is portrayed as a social or emotional vacuum—a relentless emptiness that drives characters toward self-destructive behaviors or the pursuit of fleeting pleasures [4, 5, 6]. Other times it emerges as an inner force that compels one to seek solace, not only in sustenance but in a deeper, almost existential fulfillment, hinting at the perpetual human struggle between what is desired and what can truly satisfy [7, 8, 9]. Through such varied uses, craving becomes a versatile metaphor, reflecting the complexity of human passion and the eternal tension between satisfaction and the unyielding pursuit of something just out of reach [10, 11, 12].
- Choosing “bread,” Thou wouldst have satisfied the universal and everlasting craving of humanity—to find some one to worship.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - [the stomach] has a sufficiently strong craving for it, and the appetite of the viscus is satisfied.
— from Galen: On the Natural Faculties by Galen - "If I felt a craving for food, I would have to eat."
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - The ever-increasing crowd of readers, and their continual craving for something new, insure the sale of books which nobody much esteems.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville - But still more, this craving for notoriety was a symptom of the intense morbidness which now pervaded his nature.
— from Mosses from an old manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne - It's a craving to destroy something good or, as you say, to set fire to something.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - If, indeed, this battle, this slaughter and stress, is life, why have we this craving for pleasure and beauty?
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. Wells - A craving for love is within me, which speaketh itself the language of love.
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - What even under the most favourable circumstances can the knowledge-craving Socratism of our days do with this demon rising from unfathomable depths?
— from The Birth of Tragedy; or, Hellenism and Pessimism by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - Tell him the daughter of the King of France, On serious business, craving quick dispatch, Importunes personal conference with his Grace.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - Then what bounds can e'er restrain This wild lust of having, When with each new bounty fed Grows the frantic craving?
— from The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius - By craving to be more, man becomes less; and by aspiring to be self-sufficing, he fell away from Him who truly suffices him.
— from The City of God, Volume II by Bishop of Hippo Saint Augustine
