Every real pleasure is in one sense disinterested.
 George Santayana, The Sense of Beauty (1896). copy citation

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Author George Santayana
Source The Sense of Beauty
Topic pleasure senses
Date 1896
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26842/26842-h/26842-h.htm

Context

“The truth which the theory is trying to state seems rather to be that when we seek aesthetic pleasures we have no further pleasure in mind; that we do not mix up the satisfactions of vanity and proprietorship with the delight of contemplation. This is true, but it is true at bottom of all pursuits and enjoyments. Every real pleasure is in one sense disinterested. It is not sought with ulterior motives, and what fills the mind is no calculation, but the image of an object or event, suffused with emotion. A sophisticated consciousness may often take the idea of self as the touchstone of its inclinations;” source