quotations about pleasure
But there are pleasures appropriated to the true christian; joys which no stranger intermeddles with, in the exercise of pure and undefiled religion, which is not only a heightener of our delights, but is itself the greatest of any. Even as the sun imparts a brightness to every other object, and is himself the brightest of all. Whether he contemplates the delightful truths and ravishing mysteries of the gospel; the banquet of the mind, sweeter than all honey:--or practices spiritual duties towards his neighbor, or his God; when he prays with fervent supplication, or praises with joyful lips, or hears in his lovely tabernacles what God the Lord will say, or relieves the indigent for his Redeemer's sake, and comforts the distressed;--or exercises christian graces; be it faith, that is attended with joy unspeakable; or love, that is its own reward, and the fulfilling of the law; or hope, that anticipates the joys above, in blessful expectation, the surest anchor of the soul:--or mortifies fleshly lusts:--or resists temptations, triumphing over them with christian magnanimity:--or endures afflictions, with a becoming patience and cheerful resignation:--he tastes more solid pleasures than ever the sensualist could boast. Pleasures that are true in fruition, fully answering the most sanguine expectation. Pleasures, whose repetition does not cloy, and their continuance is not clogged with satiety. Pleasures, whose review fills not the cheek with blushing, being honorable and glorious as the immortal soul, and pure as the joys of angels. Pleasures, whose consequences are not dangerous--to the body, by wasting its beauty, or preying on its health;--to the reputation, by fixing upon it an indelible stain;--to the estate by making a shipwreck of it in the horrid gulf of prodigality. Especially not dangerous to the soul, by darkening the mind, fattening the heart, searing the conscience, and exposing to eternal vengeance.--Pleasures, whose duration is not short; that can live in the winter of adversity, illuminate the valley of death, and pass into eternity.
WILLIAM MCEWEN
"On Pleasure", Select Essays Doctrinal & Practical on a Variety of the Most Important and Interesting Subjects in Divinity
Ah, many a one has started forth with hope and purpose high;
Has fought throughout a weary life, and passed all pleasure by;
Has burst all flowery chains by which men aye have been enthralled;
Has been stone-deaf to voices sweet, that softly, sadly called;
Has scorned the flashing goblet with the bubbles on its brim;
Has turned his back on jewelled hands that madly beckoned him;
Has, in a word, condemned himself to follow out his plan
By stern and lonely labor--and has died, a conquered man!
GEORGE ARNOLD
"Wool-Gathering"
Better to tread where thorns and briars wound,
And safely walk at last on heavenly ground--
Than for a while to bask in pleasure's bowers,
Fanned by her breath, and shaded 'mongst her flowers:
To feel the phantom ground beneath you slide,
And see wild desolation yawning wide
T' ingulph its victim; who, around in vain,
Despairing looks for pleasure's vanished train.
ELEANOR DICKINSON
"Pleasures of Piety", The Pleasures of Piety with Other Poems
Business first, then pleasure.
EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON
Richelieu
Pleasure is the structure of society. From childhood until death we are secretly, cunningly or obviously pursuing pleasure. So whatever our form of pleasure is, I think we should be very clear about it because it is going to guide and shape our lives. It is therefore important for each one of us to investigate closely, hesitantly and delicately this question of pleasure, for to find pleasure, and then nourish and sustain it, is a basic demand of life and without it existence becomes dull, stupid, lonely and meaningless.
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI
Freedom from the Known
How much pleasure will you allow yourself? Many people have an invisible quota in their minds for the amount of joy they will permit themselves to experience. They become so busy living life that they view pleasure as a luxury they simply do not have time for. Things like lovemaking or playing take a backseat to the everyday motions of living. However, your life simply will not work as well when you deny yourself pleasure. The old adage of all work and no play making you dull is quite true; you may find yourself living a rather colorless life if you do not pause every now and then to indulge your senses. Pleasure is like the oil that keeps the machine of your life running smoothly. Without it, the gears stick and you will most likely break down.
CHERIE CARTER-SCOTT
If Life Is a Game
Pleasure is a harmony--that is, a fitting together--a fitting of an external object with a mood or want within ourselves.
HERBERT MAXWELL
Littell's Living Age, March 12, 1892
I am very much concerned when I see young gentlemen of fortune and quality so wholly set upon pleasures and diversions, that they neglect all those improvements in wisdom and knowledge which may make them easy to themselves and useful to the world.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Guardian, July 18, 1713
For pleasure is a state of soul, and to each man that which he is said to be a lover of is pleasant.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
Every nerve that can thrill with pleasure, can also agonize with pain.
HORACE MANN
A Few Thoughts for a Young Man
The excess of delight palls our appetites rather than pleases.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Pleasure is not an epiphenomenon, a lucky happenstance of neurons being in the right place and firing at the right time. It has evolved to serve a very specific and adaptive set of functions from our distant past. The genes that encourage the expression and feeling of pleasure are success stories of natural selection--they are still around. Therefore, in our quest to understand the psychological, biological, and cultural foundations of pleasure in the modern world, we must consider what problems pleasure solved for our ancestors. If the pleasures did not provide a functional solution to some selection factors faced by our earlier brethren, the genes that shape their expression and feeling would be long gone, into the dustbin of ecological time like most others.
GENE WALLENSTEIN
The Pleasure Instinct
The path to pleasure is frequently not pretty. One woman's misogynist may be the image of another woman's desire. And men have been known to hunger for those who hate them, too. There is a measure of spiritual authenticity in sleaze.
TRISTAN FOX
Vanity Fair, November 1984
Passing pleasures do but cloy,
And ape the consciousness of joy:
The wine, the women, and the song,
That tempt us here by night,
Are happy things, though not for long,
To wing oblivious flight
Above the dull, resenting pain,
That, waking, seizes on the brain,
And gives the moody fibre food
To mope, or captiously to brood,
With swollen eyes and torpid legs,
O'er foul and discontented dregs.
Ah! the quiet that did pall
Before I drank indulgence blind
Becomes the panacea in all
I seek, yet, seeking, cannot find.
WILLIAM BATCHELDER GREENE
"Passing Pleasures", Imogen and Other Poems
We ought to aim at such pleasures as follow labor, not at those which precede it.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
The contrast is between necessity and pleasure. To satisfy the first is legitimate and, in fact, obligatory; to renounce the second is possible, even meritorious. The problem is that the line of demarcation between necessity and pleasure is very fine and often imperceptible; when one eats or drinks, the two go together, inextricably bound. It is precisely from this observation that a culture of deep suspicion developed in Christian tradition toward the daily gestures of eating and drinking, so innocuous at first glance.
MASSIMO MONTANARI & BETH ARCHER BROMBERT
Medieval Tastes: Food, Cooking, and the Table
As an experience, pleasure is ... a filling up of the cup, the supplying of a need. And the deeper the draft upon vital resources, the greater the fulfilment of desire.
WILLIAM ERNEST HOCKING
The Psychological Bulletin, May 15, 1908
Everybody's looking for a reason to live
If you're looking for a reason
I've a reason to give
Pleasure, little treasure
DEPECHE MODE
"Pleasure, Little Treasure"
Ever let the Fancy roam,
Pleasure never is at home.
JOHN KEATS
"Fancy"
As to the lawful pleasures of the mind, the heart, or the senses, indulge in them with gratitude and moderation, drawing up sometimes in order to punish yourself, without waiting to be forced to do so by necessity.
HENRI-DOMINIQUE LACORDAIRE
Letters to Young Men