“Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.”William Blake · Căsătoria Cerului cu Infernul · 1793 · Proverbele Infernului
A smothered desire doesn't vanish: it grows in the dark and turns against you.
Blake uses a deliberately shocking image: desire is a child; if you let it live without fulfilling it, it grows in the dark and returns as resentment, melancholy, or self-sabotage. Repression does not neutralize energy, it only deforms it. Someone who daydreams for years about another career without ever trying anything feels exactly this inner decay; the honest options are to consciously renounce it or to act.
Why it matters An honest test for the desires you keep postponing: fulfill them at least partly or consciously release them, or they will consume you in secret.