Recent lifelong learning policies have been criticized for creating an illusion of freedom whilst simultaneously reducing choice. The concept of desire permits engagement with the conscious and unconscious drives that underpin individual decision-making, which direct the life course. Utilizing the ideas of Hume and Spinoza, the present article articulates the interrelated nature of desire and learning. Evidence is drawn from Learning Lives, a Teaching and Learning Research Programme-funded research project that uses the life history method to explore themes of agency, identity and learning across the life course. Boltanski and Thevenot's sociology of critical capacity is used as a heuristic tool that illuminates the mechanics of desire as described by eight contributors. Their stories provide a basis from which to critique policies for lifelong learning that appear limited in relation to the multiple desires that drive their life choices. (Contains 1 figure.)