“In contrast to the knowledge that keeps man in a passive quietude, Desire dis-quiets him and moves him to action. Born of Desire, action tends to satisfy it, and can do so only by the ‘negation,’ the destruction, or at least the transformation, of the desired object: to satisfy, for example, the food must be destroyed or, in any case, transformed. Thus, all action is ‘negating.'”

Alexandre Kojève, Introduction to the Reading of Hegel