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.
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian Poet
Pleasure is the most real good in this life.
—Frederick II of Prussia (1712–86) Prussian Monarch
He buys honey too dear who licks it from thorns.
—Common Proverb
The roses of pleasure seldom last long enough to adorn the brow of him who plucks them, and they are the only roses which do not retain their sweetness after they have lost their beauty.
—Hugh Blair (1718–1800) Scottish Preacher, Scholar, Critic
All fits of pleasure are balanced by an equal degree of pain or languor; ’tis like spending this year, part of the next year’s revenue.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
Venture not to the utmost bounds of even lawful pleasures; the limits of good and evil join.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
Indulge yourself in pleasures only in so far as they are necessary for the preservation of health.
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher, Theologian
In everything, satiety closely follows the greatest pleasures.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Don’t mistake pleasure for happiness. They are a different breed of dogs.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
I conceive that pleasures are to be avoided if greater pains be the consequence, and pains to be coveted that will terminate in greater pleasures.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
The man of pleasure little knows the perfect joy he loses for the disappointing gratifications which he pursues.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
We tire of those pleasures we take, but never of those we give.
—Jean Antoine Petit-Senn (1792–1870) Swiss Poet
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified. He that labors in any great or laudable undertaking has his fatigues first supported by hope and afterward rewarded by joy.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
So enjoy present pleasures as to not mar those to come.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Look upon pleasures not upon that side that is next the sun, or where they look beauteously, that is, as they come toward you to be enjoyed, for then they paint and smile, and dress themselves up in tinsel, and glass gems, and counterfeit imagery.
—Jeremy Taylor
The slave of pleasure soon sinks in a kind of voluptuous dotage; intoxicated with present delights, and careless of everything else, his days and nights glide away in luxury or vice, and he has no care, but to keep thought away: for thought is troublesome to him, who lives without his own approbation.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
The best pleasures of this world are not quite true.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The most delicate, the most sensible of all pleasures, consists in promoting the pleasure of others.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
Pleasure is continually disappointed, reduced, deflated, in favor of strong, noble values: Truth, Death, Progress, Struggle, Joy, etc. Its victorious rival is Desire: we are always being told about Desire, never about Pleasure.
—Roland Barthes (1915–80) French Writer, Critic, Teacher
A life of pleasure makes even the strongest mind frivolous at last.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
With the catching ends the pleasures of the chase.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Pleasure admitted in undue degree, enslaves the will, nor leaves the judgment free.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Pleasure is Nature.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Pleasure, when it is a man’s chief purpose, disappoints itself; and the constant application to it palls the faculty of enjoying it, and leaves the sense of our inability for that we wish, with a disrelish of everything else. Thus the intermediate seasons of the man of pleasure are more heavy than one would impose upon the vilest criminal.
—Richard Steele (1672–1729) Irish Writer, Politician
Whenever I meet with anything agreeable in this world it surprises me so much—and pleases me so much (when my passions are not interested in one way or the other) that I go on wondering for a week to come.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Pleasure is none, if not diversified.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
Let not the enjoyment of pleasures now within your grasp, be carried to such excess as to incapacitate you from future repetition.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
The purest pleasures lie within the circle of useful occupation.—Mere pleasure, sought outside of usefulness, is fraught with poison.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
Short lived pleasure is the parent of pain.
—Common Proverb
The existence of pleasure is the first mystery. The existence of pain has prompted far more philosophical speculation. Pleasure and pain need to be considered together; they are inseparable. Yet the space filled by each is perhaps different. Pleasure, defined as a sense of gratification, is essential for nature
—John Berger (1926–2017) English Art Critic, Novelist
Nothing is so perfectly amusing as a total change of ideas.
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
We smile at the ignorance of the savage who cuts down the tree in order to reach its fruit; but the same blunder is made by every person who is over eager and impatient in the pursuit of pleasure.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Horse-play, romping, frequent and loud fits of laughter, jokes, and indiscriminate familiarity, will sink both merit and knowledge into a degree of contempt. They compose at most a merry fellow; and a merry fellow was never yet a respectable man.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Pleasure is one of those commodities which are sold at a thousand shops, and bought by a thousand customers, but of which nobody ever fairly finds possession. Either they know not well how to use, or the commodity will not keep, for no one has ever yet appeared to be satisfied with his bargain. It is too subtle for transition, though sufficiently solid for sale.
—William Gilmore Simms (1806–70) American Poet, Novelist, Historian
All pleasure must be bought at the price of pain.—The difference between false and true pleasure is this: for the true, the price is paid before you enjoy it; for the false, after you enjoy it.
—John Foster Dulles (1888–1959) American Republican Public Official, Lawyer
I wasted my substance, I know I did, on riotous living, so I did, but there’s nothing on record to show I did more than my betters have done.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
What leads to unhappiness, is making pleasure the chief aim.
—William Shenstone (1714–63) British Poet, Landscape Gardener
The intellectual man requires a fine bait; the sots are easily amused. But everybody is drugged with his own frenzy, and the pageant marches at all hours, with music and banner and badge.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The man of pleasure should more properly be termed the man of pain; like Diogenes, he purchases repentance at the highest price, and sells the richest reversion for the poorest reality.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Speed, it seems to me, provides the one genuinely modern pleasure.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
Pleasure of love lasts but a moment, pain of love lasts a lifetime.
—Unknown
Amusement that is excessive and followed only for its own sake, allures and deceives us, and leads us down imperceptibly in thoughtlessness to the grave.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
Consider pleasures as they depart, not as they come.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Pleasure therefore, (or Delight,) is the appearance or sense of Good; and Molestation or Displeasure, the appearance or sense of Evil.
—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English Political Philosopher
For the rational, psychologically healthy man, the desire for pleasure is the desire to celebrate his control over reality. For the neurotic, the desire for pleasure is the desire to escape from reality.
—Nathaniel Branden (1930–2014) American Psychotherapist