Pleasure Quotes - Page 20

• the bad is more easily perceived than the good. A fresh lobster does not give such pleasure to the consumer as a stale one will give him pain.

  Rebecca West

  Pain, Evil, Giving

  Rebecca West (2010). “A Train of Powder”, p.62, Open Road Media

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• though pleasure may be purchasable, happiness cannot be bought for a price.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Happiness, May

  Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (1938). “Works”

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• you could have forgiven my committing a sin if you hadn't feared that I had a committed a pleasure as well.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Sin, Committed, Wells

  Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (1938). “Works”

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• It is human misery and not pleasure which contains the secret of the divine wisdom.

  Simone Weil

  Divine Wisdom, Secret, Misery

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.93, Psychology Press

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• Thoughts take up no room. When they are right, they afford a portable pleasure, which one may travel with, without any trouble or encumbrance.

  Jeremy Collier

  May, Rooms, Trouble

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• Envy is of all others the most ungratifying and disconsolate passion. There is power for ambition, pleasure for luxury, and pelf even for covetousness; but envy gets no reward but vexation.

  Jeremy Collier

  Passion, Ambition, Luxury

  Jeremy COLLIER (the Nonjuror.), J. E. (1838). “Pearls of Great Price: or, Maxims, reflections, characters and thoughts, on miscellaneous subjects ... Selected from the works of the Rev. Jeremy Collier by the editor of “Sir William Jones's Discourses,” etc. [The editor's preface signed: J. E., i.e. James Elmes.]”, p.108

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• Napping is too luxurious, too sybaritic, too unproductive, and it's free; pleasures for which we don't pay make us anxious. Besides, it seems to be a natural inclination. ... Fighting off natural inclinations is a major Puritan virtue, and nothing that feels that good can be respectable.

  Barbara Holland

  Sleep, Fighting, Pay

  "Literature,one screen at a time" by Alex Beam, www.nytimes.com. November 16, 2005.

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• Strange! that what is enjoyed without pleasure cannot be discontinued without pain!

  Hannah More

  Pain, Addiction, Strange

  Hannah More (1847). “The Complete Works of Hannah More”, p.179

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• The misfortune is, that religious learning is too often rather considered as an act of the memory than of the heart and affections; as a dry duty, rather than a lively pleasure.

  Hannah More

  Religious, Memories, Heart

  Hannah More (1827). “The Works of Hannah More: With a Sketch of Her Life”, p.370

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• One little human truth is that opinionated people don't hold much with other people's opinions, and it is a great pleasure to some of them to be able to ascribe incurable defects, such as belonging to a certain sex; or base motives, or lack of understanding, to anyone whose views they disagree with.

  Katherine Anne Porter

  Sex, Views, People

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• Conversation augments pleasure and diminishes pain by our having shares in either; for silent woes are greatest, as silent satisfaction leas; since sometimes our pleasure would be none but for telling of it, and our grief insupportable but for participation.

  William Wycherley

  Sympathy, Pain, Grief

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• Belief is as necessary to the soul as pleasures are necessary to the body.

  Elsa Schiaparelli

  Soul, Body, Belief

  Elsa Schiaparelli (1954). “Shocking Life”

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• Only the refined and delicate pleasures that spring from research and education can build up barriers between different ranks.

  Madame de Stael

  Education, Spring, Research

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• The mind's pleasures are made to calm the tempests of the heart.

  Madame de Stael

  Heart, Mind, Calm

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• You little know what you have done, when you have first broke the bounds of modesty; you have set open the door of your fancy to the devil, so that he can, almost at his pleasure ever after, represent the same sinful pleasure to you anew.

  Richard Baxter

  Doors, Devil, Done

  Richard Baxter (1815). “The poor man's best companion: in plain and familiar dialogues. With forms of prayer for various uses ... By the Rev. Richard Baxter”, p.221

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• A taste for books, which is still the pleasure and glory of my life.

  Edward Gibbon

  Book, Taste, Glory

  Edward Gibbon (1869). “The Autobiography and Correspondence of Edward Gibbon, the Historian”, p.330

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• Surely a King who loves pleasure is less dangerous than one who loves glory?

  Nancy Mitford

  Kings, Royalty, Glory

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• Truth illuminates and gives joy; and it is by the bond of joy, not of pleasure, that men's spirits are indissolubly held.

  Matthew Arnold

  Truth, Men, Giving

  Matthew Arnold (1865). “Essays in Criticism”, p.251

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• Infidelity is such a pretty word, so light and delicate. Whereas the act itself is dark and thick with guilt, betrayal, confusion, pain, and (okay) sometimes enormous pleasure.

  Cynthia Heimel

  Pain, Betrayal, Dark

  Cynthia Heimel (2002). “If You Can't Live Without Me, Why Aren't You Dead Yet?!”, p.161, Grove Press

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• The purpose of art is always, ultimately, to give pleasure - though our sensibilities may take time to catch up with the forms of pleasure that art in a given time may offer.

  Susan Sontag

  Art, Giving, Purpose

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• The moral pleasure in art, as well as the moral service that art performs, consists in the intelligent gratification of consciousness.

  Susan Sontag

  Art, Intelligent, Moral

  Susan Sontag (2014). “A Susan Sontag Reader”, p.214, Macmillan

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• There are some elements in life - above all, sexual pleasure - about which it isn't necessary to have a position.

  Susan Sontag

  Elements, Position

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• A pen and a notebook and a reasonable amount of discrimination will change a journey from a mere annual into a perennial, its pleasures and pains renewable at will.

  Freya Stark

  Notebook, Pain, Journey

  Freya Stark (2014). “The Zodiac Arch”, p.137, I.B.Tauris

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• I suspect anyone self-satisfied enough to refuse lawful pleasures: we are not sufficiently rich in our separate resources to reject the graces of the universe when offered.

  Freya Stark

  Self, Grace, Rich

  Freya Stark (1964). “The Journey's Echo: Selections”

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• The virtuous to those mansions go
  Where pleasures unembitter'd flow,
  Where, leading up a jocund band,
  Vigor and Youth dance hand in hand,
  Whilst Zephyr, with harmonious gales,
  Pipes softest music through the vales,
  And Spring and Flora, gaily crown'd,
  With velvet carpet spread the ground;
  With livelier blush where roses bloom,
  And every shrub expires perfume.

  Charles Churchill

  Spring, Hands, Rose

  Charles Churchill (1762). “The Ghost”, p.38

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