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About this quote

What does it mean?
Pleasure for its own sake is not a vice.
In plain terms
Enjoying pleasure alone isn’t immoral.
What can you take from it?
Not all enjoyment is wrong.

Where it applies

  • personal choices
  • cultural debates
  • philosophical discussions

Putting it to work

  • allow harmless enjoyment
  • distinguish between pleasure and harm

Questions to consider

  • When does pleasure become harmful?
  • How should societies regulate pleasure?

Another view

Some pleasures can lead to harmful consequences despite intent.

More from Samuel Johnson

  1. I am willing to love all mankind, except an American.

    Permalink to quote #163

  2. All theory is against the freedom of the will; all experience for it.

    Permalink to quote #165

  3. A country governed by a despot is an inverted cone.

    Permalink to quote #162

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  3. They that endeavour to abolish vice destroy also virtue, for contraries, though they destroy one another, are yet the life of one another.

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