“ To fear pleasure and to fly from joy appears to me the worst insult that one can offer to nature. ”
Anatole France, Penguin Island (1908). copy citation
| Author | Anatole France |
|---|---|
| Source | Penguin Island |
| Topic | fear joy |
| Date | 1908 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1930/1930-h/1930-h.htm |
Context
“I have, indeed, to some extent gone with strange women, but I have not delayed over long in taverns to watch the young Syrians dance to the sound of the crotalum.* But if I have restrained my desires it was for my own satisfaction and for the sake of good discipline. To fear pleasure and to fly from joy appears to me the worst insult that one can offer to nature. I am assured that during their lives certain of the elect of thy god abstained from food and avoided women through love of asceticism, and voluntarily exposed themselves to useless sufferings. I should be afraid of meeting those, criminals whose frenzy horrifies me.”
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