We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities, and anyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
—C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) Irish-British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
Innocent amusements are such as excite moderately, and such as produce a cheerful frame of mind, not boisterous mirth; such as refresh, instead of exhausting, the system; such as recur frequently, rather than continue long; such as send us back to our daily duties invigorated in body and spirit; such as we can partake of in the presence and society of respectable friends; such as consist with and are favorable to a grateful piety; such as are chastened by self-respect, and are accompanied with the consciousness that life has a higher end than to be amused.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
Perhaps the rare and simple pleasure of being seen for what one is compensates for the misery of being it.
—Margaret Drabble (b.1939) English Novelist, Critic, Biographer, Short Story Writer
Pleasure is to woman what the sun is to the flower; if moderately enjoyed, it beautifies, refreshes and improves; but if immoderately, it withers, deteriorates and destroys.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to work: but when they seldom come, they wished for come, and nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Pleasure is the only thing to live for. Nothing ages like happiness.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
An inordinate passion for pleasure is the secret of remaining young.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
We have more days to live through than pleasures. Be slow in enjoyment, quick at work, for men see work ended with pleasure, pleasure ended with regret.
—Baltasar Gracian (1601–58) Spanish Scholar, Prose Writer
The rule of my life is to make business a pleasure, and pleasure my business.
—Aaron Burr
For some, pleasure is a fever they can’t shake. For others, it’s a disease they cannot seem to catch.
—Nathaniel LeTonnerre
Venture not to the utmost bounds of even lawful pleasures; the limits of good and evil join.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
Short lived pleasure is the parent of pain.
—Common Proverb
Pleasant it is, when over a great sea the winds trouble the waters, to gaze from shore upon another’s great tribulation; not because any man’s troubles are a delectable joy, but because to perceive you are free of them yourself is pleasant.
—Lucretius (c.99–55 BCE) Roman Epicurean Poet, Philosopher
He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Abstainer: A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
All sensations are true; pleasure is our natural goal.
—Epicurus (c.341–270 BCE) Greek Philosopher
Look for a long time at what pleases you, and a longer time at what pains you.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
Honor is a public enemy, and conscience a domestic, and he that would secure his pleasure, must pay a tribute to one and go halves with t’other.
—William Congreve (1670–1729) English Playwright, Poet
Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
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
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
When pleasure interferes with business, give up business.
—U.S. Proverb
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
The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
Speed, it seems to me, provides the one genuinely modern pleasure.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Satirist, Short Story Writer
If I give way to pleasure, I must also yield to grief, to poverty, to labor, to ambition, to anger until I am torn to pieces by my misfortunes and my lust.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.
—Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) English Aristocrat, Poet, Novelist, Writer
We tire of those pleasures we take, but never of those we give.
—Jean Antoine Petit-Senn (1792–1870) French-Swiss Lyric Poet
Though sages may pour out their wisdom’s treasure, there is no sterner moralist than pleasure.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
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