Selected pleasure quotes

1. Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize.

2. As soon as beauty is sought not from religion and love, but for pleasure, it degrades the seeker.

3. Variety is the soul of pleasure.

4. Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

5. The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.

6. Even a meaningless life may contain many good breakfasts.

7. Instead of past, present and future, I'd prefer chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.

8. For me, it's always easy to choose between the Ultimate, the Infinite, and the Chocolate.

9. It can never be wrong to give pleasure.

10. Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.

11. There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

12. What part of us feels pleasure? Is it our hand, our arm, our flesh, or our blood? It must obviously be something immaterial.

13. My favorite jellybean is the pink one with the flavor inside.

14. If we have nothing to do but service our own pleasure - because society has taught us that's all we're worth and we're exiled from positions of authority from which we could actually shape society - then we just become hedonists. Eventually, despite how great it may look on Saturday night, come Monday morning there's just purposelessness.

15. A man of pleasure is a man of pains.

16. Under present conditions, people are preoccupied with consumer goods not because they are brainwashed but because buying is the one pleasurable activity not only permitted but actively encouraged by our rulers. The pleasure of eating an ice cream cone may be minor compared to the pleasure of meaningful, autonomous work, but the former is easily available and the latter is not. A poor family would undoubtedly rather have a decent apartment than a new TV, but since they are unlikely to get the apartment, what is to be gained by not getting the TV?

17. Of pleasures, those which occur most rarely give the most delight.

18. All this fuss about sleeping together. For physical pleasure I'd sooner go to my dentist any day.

19. Words should be an intense pleasure just as leather should be to a shoemaker.

20. Sometimes it is harder to deprive oneself of a pain than of a pleasure.

21. There is to some men a great Lechery in Lying, and imposing on the understandings of beleeving people.

22. Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It's to see my dividends coming in.

23. Hence, all you vain delights, As short as are the nights Wherein you spend your folly! There's naught in this life sweet But only melancholy; O sweetest melancholy!

24. The art of music is good, for the reason, among others, that it produces pleasure; but what proof is it possible to give that pleasure is good? If, then, it is asserted that there is a comprehensive formula, including all things which are in themselves good, and that whatever else is good, is not so as an end, but as a mean, the formula may be accepted or rejected, but is not a subject of what is commonly understood by proof.

25. Few human creatures would consent to be changed into any of the lower animals for a promise of the fullest allowance of a beast's pleasures; no intelligent human being would consent to be a fool, no instructed person would be an ignoramus, no person of feeling and conscience would be selfish and base, even though they should be persuaded that the fool, the dunce, or the rascal is better satisfied with his lot than they are with theirs.

26. Beware of over-great pleasure in being popular or even beloved.

27. But I do think that women who spend all their lives on a diet probably have a miserable sex life: if your body is the enemy, how can you relax and take pleasure? Everything is about control, rather than relaxing, about holding everything in.

28. There is no such thing as pure pleasure; some anxiety always goes with it.

29. I have drunken deep of joy, And I will taste no other wine tonight.

30. Let me set my mournful ditty To a merry measure; Thou wilt never come for pity, Thou wilt come for pleasure; Pity then will cut away Those cruel wings, and thou wilt stay.

31. The pleasure that is in sorrow is sweeter than the pleasure of pleasure itself.

32. Tragedy delights by affording a shadow of the pleasure which exists in pain.

33. Physical pleasure is a sensual experience no different from pure seeing or the pure sensation with which a fine fruit fills the tongue; it is a great unending experience, which is given us, a knowing of the world, the fullness and the glory of all knowing. And not our acceptance of it is bad; the bad thing is that most people misuse and squander this experience and apply it as a stimulant at the tired spots of their lives and as distraction instead of a rallying toward exalted moments.

34. Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure Thrill the deepest notes of woe.

35. Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. The flowers which scatter their odours from time to time in the paths of life, grow up without culture from seeds scattered by chance.

36. Life admits not of delays; when pleasure can be had, it is fit to catch it. Every hour takes away part of the things that please us, and perhaps part of our disposition to be pleased.

37. In every one of us there are two ruling and directing principles, whose guidance we follow wherever they may lead; the one being an innate desire of pleasure; the other, an acquired judgment which aspires after excellence.

38. The discovery of the good taste of bad taste can be very liberating. The man who insists on high and serious pleasures is depriving himself of pleasure; he continually restricts what he can enjoy; in the constant exercise of his good taste he will eventually price himself out of the market, so to speak. Here Camp taste supervenes upon good taste as a daring and witty hedonism. It makes the man of good taste cheerful, where before he ran the risk of being chronically frustrated. It is good for the digestion.

39. Let us not depend upon the world for pleasure.

40. Love not Pleasure; love God.

41. The pleasures of the imagination are as it were only drawings and models which are played with by poor people who cannot afford the real thing.

42. Wars are not favourable to delicate pleasures.

43. The true test of all the arts, is not solely whether the production is a true copy of nature, but whether it answers the end of art, which is to produce a pleasing effect upon the mind.

44. People understand the meaning of eating lies in the nourishment of the body only when they cease to consider that the object of that activity is pleasure. ...People understand the meaning of art only when they cease to consider that the aim of that activity is beauty, i.e., pleasure.

45. There will be sex after death; we just won't be able to feel it.

46. That's life. It hurts, it's dirty, and it feels very very good.

47. Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize.

48. Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.

49. It is very strange, and very melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them.

50. Not the poem which we have read, but that to which we return, with the greatest pleasure, possesses the genuine power, and claims the name of essential poetry.

51. There is nothing beyond God, and the sense enjoyments are simply something through which we are passing now in the hope of getting better things.

52. 'The gods look in pleasure on penitent sinners.'

53. Enjoying things which are pleasant; that is not the evil: it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.

54. I believe... that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.

55. Good wine is a necessity of life for me.

56. Sleep- the most beautiful experience in life- except drink.

57. Then sing as Martin Luther sang, As Doctor Martin Luther sang, 'Who loves not wine, woman and song, He is a fool his whole life long.'

58. Crime is the soul of lust. What would pleasure be if it were not accompanied by crime? It is not the object of debauchery that excites us, rather the idea of evil.

59. Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out ... and perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure.

60. What wondrous life in this I lead! Ripe apples drop about my head; The luscious clusters of the vine Upon my mouth do crush their wine; The nectarine and curious peach Into my hands themselves do reach; Stumbling on melons, as I pass, Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass.

61. It is so hard for us little human beings to accept this deal that we get. It's really crazy, isn't it? We get to live, then we have to die. What we put into every moment is all we have: What spirit human beings have! It is a pretty cheesy deal - all the pleasures of life, and then death.

62. It is harder to fight pleasure than to to fight emotion.

63. Sport, that wrinkled Care derides, And Laughter, holding both his sides. Come, and trip it, as you go. On the light fantastic toe.

64. Alas! what boots it with incessant care To tend the homely slighted shepherd's trade, And strictly meditate the thankless Muse? Were it not better done as others use, To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, Or with the tangles of Neaera's hair? Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise (That last infirmity of noble mind) To scorn delights, and live laborious days; But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with th' abhorred shears, And slits the thin-spun life.

65. The greatest efforts of the race have always been traceable to the love of praise, as its greatest catastrophes to the love of pleasure.

66. What has pleased, and continues to please, is likely to please again: hence are derived the rules of art, and on this immoveable foundation they must ever stand.

67. I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom's realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer's Valhalla. I know not, nor do I care. Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.

68. There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.

69. The pleasure of satisfying a savage instinct, undomesticated by the ego, is incomparably much more intense than the one of satisfying a tamed instinct. The reason is becoming the enemy that prevents us from a lot of possibilities of pleasure.

70. Wine comes in at the mouth And love comes in at the eye; That's all we shall know for truth Before we grow old and die. I lift the glass to my mouth, I look at you, and I sigh.

71. I bought abandon dear And sold all piety for pleasure. My own free spirit I have followed, And never will I give up lust.

72. For pleasure is a state of soul, and to each man that which he is said to be a lover of is pleasant.... Now for most men their pleasures are in conflict with one another because these are not by nature pleasant, but the lovers of what is noble find pleasant the things that are by nature pleasant; and virtuous actions are such... Happiness then is the best, noblest, and most pleasant thing in the world, and these attributes are not severed as in the inscription at Delos: Most noble is that which is justest, and best is health; but pleasantest is it to win what we love.

73. After these matters we ought perhaps next to discuss pleasure. For it is thought to be most intimately connected with our human nature, which is the reason why in educating the young we steer them by the rudders of pleasure and pain; it is thought, too, that to enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on virtue of character. For these things extend right through life, with a weight and power of their own in respect both to virtue and to the happy life, since men choose what is pleasant and avoid what is painful; and such things, it will be thought, we should least of all omit to discuss, especially since they admit of much dispute.

74. Sublime tobacco! which from east to west Cheers the tar's labor or the Turkman's rest.

75. Pleasure is not happiness. It has no more importance than a shadow following a man.

76. But pleasures are like poppies spread- You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed; Or like the snow falls in the river- A moment white-then melts forever.

77. Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, While proudly riding o'er the azure realm In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes; Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm; Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway, That, hushed in grim repose, expects his evening prey.

78. Remorse, the fatal egg by Pleasure laid.

79. So manifold, all pleasing in their kind, All healthful, are the employs of rural life, Reiterated as the wheel of time, Runs round; still ending, and beginning still.

80. Sonja: Sex without love is an empty experience! Boris: Yes, but as empty experiences go, it's one of the best!

81. Ecstasy is a glassful of tea and a piece of sugar in the mouth.

82. If we make any kind of decent, useful life for ourselves we have less need to run from it to those diminishing pleasures of the movies. When we go to the movies we want something good, something sustained, we don't want to settle for just a bit of something, because we have other things to do. If life at home is more interesting, why go to the movies? And the theatres frequented by true moviegoers - those perennial displaced persons in each city, the loners and the losers - depress us. Listening to them - and they are often more audible than the sound track - as they cheer the cons and jeer the cops, we may still share their disaffection, but it's not enough to keep us interested in cops and robbers. A little nose-thumbing isn't enough. If we've grown up at the movies we know that good work is continuous not with the academic, respectable tradition but with the glimpses of something good in trash, but we want the subversive gesture carried to the domain of discovery. Trash has given us an appetite for art.

83. Revenge is like the sweetest joy next to getting pussy

84. Critic, relent! Your hope for repentance Will meet with disapppointment. For this is the life, Not desert tents, Not camel's milk!

85. Il faut travailler, sinon par gout, au moins par desespoir, puisque, tout bien verifie, travailler est moins ennuyeux que s'amuser.

86. The lady said, 'It's no good trying to buy a paper here. That Sir William Beveridge is going to abolish want, so all the papers were sold out'. Later that day or the next day I asked him to come to lunch. I was meeting with Evelyn Waugh, an old friend and famous writer. They did not get on at all well. Evelyn Waugh said to him at the end, 'How do you get your main pleasure in life, Sir William?' He paused and said, 'I get mine trying to leave the world a better place than I found it'. Evelyn Waugh said, 'I get mine spreading alarm and despondency' - this was in the height of the war - 'and I get more satisfaction than you do'. So he did not meet with universal acclamation, but nearly everyone admired Beveridge at that time. He was a wonderful man.

87. Please is frail like a dewdrop, while it laughs it dies. But sorrow is strong and abiding. Let sorrowful love wake in your eyes. ~ 27

88. Fun I love, but too much Fun is of all things the most loathsom. Mirth is better than Fun & Happiness is better than Mirth.

89. No matter how hard we try, sex isn't as good as sweet corn. (quoting Garrison Keillor)

90. Edward Smith: Why is it more of a pleasure to do 30 or 40 pictures than to do just one? Andy Warhol: Then I can, uh, listen to my soundabout which looks just like the thing that I'm wearing now, and you can listen to opera and stuff like that. Edward Smith: Does that mean you don't have to think when you're painting? Andy Warhol: No, you can listen to really good music. Edward Smith: So, what, painting is an excuse to listen to really good music? Andy Warhol: Oh, yeah.

91. Meum est propositum in taberna mori, ut sint vina proxima morientis ori.

92. For some identify happiness with virtue, some with practical wisdom, others with a kind of philosophic wisdom, others with these, or one of these, accompanied by pleasure or not without pleasure; while others include also external prosperity. Now ... it is not probable that these should be entirely mistaken, but rather that they should be right in at least some one respect or even in most respects.

93. Unica regla de agradar: coger el apetito picado con el hambre con que quedo.

94. You that would last long, list to my song, Make no more coil, but buy of this oil. Would you be ever fair and young? Stout of teeth and strong of tongue? Tart of palate, quick of ear? Sharp of sight, of nostril clear? Moist of hand and light of foot? (Or, I will come nearer to it) Would you live free from all diseases, Do the act your mistress pleases; Yet fright all aches from your bones? Here's a medicine for the nones.

95. A man may feel so completely thwarted that he seeks no form of satisfaction, but only distraction and oblivion. He then becomes a devotee of 'pleasure.' That is to say, he seeks to make life bearable by becoming less alive. Drunkenness, for example, is temporary suicide.

96. Il n'est pas honteux pour l'homme de succomber sous la douleur et il est honteux de succomber sous le plaisir. (160)

97. Tout ce qui plait a une raison de plaire, et mepriser les attroupements de ceux qui s'egarent n'est pas le moyen de les ramener ou ils devraient etre.

98. Et a quoi bon executer des projets, puisque le projet est en lui-meme une jouissance suffisante?

99. Il n'est pas de plaisir plus doux que de surprendre un homme en lui donnant plus qu'il n'espere.

100. The erotic world he depicts is one of casual pickups and short-lived affairs. Love, there, is rarely more than physical passion, and when tenderer emotions exist, they are almost always one-sided. At the same time, he refuses to pretend that his memories of sensual pleasure are unhappy or spoiled by feelings of guilt.