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Pleasure quotes

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“You can't have a lasting civilization without plenty of pleasant vices.” Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World” - 1932

“This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.” Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest” - 1895

“Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.” William Shakespeare, “Othello” - 1623

“Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.” Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice” - 28 January 1813

“any pleasure that does no harm to other people is to be valued.” Bertrand Russell, “The Conquest of Happiness” - 1930

“Men seek but one thing in life—their pleasure.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“He who will not give himself leisure to be thirsty can never find the true pleasure of drinking.” Michel de Montaigne, “The Essays of Michel de Montaigne” - 1580

“Your base level of pleasure is determined by how you view your whole life.” Oprah Winfrey, “What I Know For Sure” - 2014

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” Jane Austen, “Northanger Abbey” - 1817

“I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.” Oscar Wilde, “A Woman of No Importance” - 1893

“I don’t read in order to study the craft; I read because I like to read.” Stephen King, “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” - 2000

“Truly, sir, and pleasure will be paid one time or another.” William Shakespeare, “Twelfth Night” - 1623

“These flow'rs are like the pleasures of the world; this bloody man, the care on't.” William Shakespeare, “Cymbeline” - 1623

“Long brooding over those lost pleasures exaggerates their charm and sweetness.” William Makepeace Thackeray, “Vanity Fair” - 1847

“No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en; in brief, sir, study what you most affect.” William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew” - 1623

“Sweets grown common lose their dear delight.” William Shakespeare, “Shakespeare's Sonnets” - 1609

“The pleasure of remembering had been taken from me, because there was no longer anyone to remember with.” John Green, “The Fault in Our Stars” - 2012

“the existence of broccoli does not in any way affect the taste of chocolate.” John Green, “The Fault in Our Stars” - 2012

“I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence.” John Green, “The Fault in Our Stars” - 2012

“There is only one thing I should like better; and that would be to see the Philosopher making the same sort of meal himself, with the same relish.” Charles Dickens, “Oliver Twist” - 1838

“Boredom is essentially a thwarted desire for events, not necessarily pleasant ones, but just occurrences such as will enable the victim of ennui to know one day from another. The opposite of boredom, in a word, is not pleasure, but excitement.” Bertrand Russell, “The Conquest of Happiness” - 1930

“The performance of duty, and not an indulgence in vapid ease and vapid pleasure, is all that makes life worth while.” Theodore Roosevelt, “Theodore Roosevelt; an Autobiography” - 1913

“They suffer, of course ... but then they live, they live a real life, not a fantastic one, for suffering is life. Without suffering what would be the pleasure of it?” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov” - 1880

“Women derive a pleasure, incomprehensible to the other sex, from the delicate toil of the needle.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Scarlet Letter” - 1850

“Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.” Henry James, “The Portrait of a Lady” - 1881

“God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures.” Francis Bacon, “The Essays of Francis Bacon” - 1597

“The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.” Samuel Butler, “The Note-Books of Samuel Butler” - 1912

“There be other simple ideas which convey themselves into the mind by all the ways of sensation and reflection, viz. PLEASURE or DELIGHT, and its opposite, PAIN, or UNEASINESS; POWER; EXISTENCE; UNITY mix with almost all our other Ideas.” John Locke, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” - 1689

“I pleasure those whom I would liefest please.” Sophocles, “Antigone” - c. 441 BC

“But if I am wrong in thinking the human soul immortal, I am glad to be wrong; nor will I allow the mistake which gives me so much pleasure to be wrested from me as long as I live.” Marcus Tullius Cicero, “On Old Age” - 44 BC

“Cloquet hated reality but realized it was still the only place to get a good steak.” Woody Allen, “Side Effects” - 1980

“It's never the wrong time to call on Toad. Early or late he's always the same fellow. Always good-tempered, always glad to see you, always sorry when you go!” Kenneth Grahame, “The Wind in the Willows” - 1908

“The third principle is the motive: for instance when a man is moved by one whom he loves, to do good to someone: for whatever we do or suffer for a friend is pleasant, because love is the principal cause of pleasure.” Thomas Aquinas, “Summa Theologica” - 1274

“He writes because for him it is a luxury which becomes the more agreeable and more evident, the fewer there are who buy and read what he writes.” Søren Kierkegaard, “Fear and Trembling” - 1843

“I'm now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.” Emily Brontë, “Wuthering Heights” - 1847

“For such Truth, as opposeth no man profit, nor pleasure, is to all men welcome.” Thomas Hobbes, “Leviathan” - 1651

“Pride, therefore, is pleasure springing from a man thinking too highly of himself.” Baruch Spinoza, “Ethics” - 1677

“You must have a cigarette. 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, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” - 1890

“I have not the pleasure of understanding you” Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice” - 28 January 1813

“when pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure.” Jane Austen, “Persuasion” - 1816

“the pleasure isn’t in doing the thing; the pleasure is in planning it.” John Green, “Paper Towns” - 2008

“Sometimes it is harder to deprive oneself of a pain than of a pleasure” F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Tender Is the Night” - 1934

“Later she remembered all the hours of the afternoon as happy—one of those uneventful times that seem at the moment only a link between past and future pleasure but turn out to have been the pleasure itself.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Tender Is the Night” - 1934

“People go on marrying because they can't resist natural forces, although many of them may know perfectly well that they are possibly buying a month's pleasure with a life's discomfort.” Thomas Hardy, “Jude the Obscure” - 1895

“You, and those like you, take your fill of pleasure on earth by making the life of such as me bitter and black with sorrow; and then it is a fine thing, when you have had enough of that, to think of securing your pleasure in heaven by becoming...” Thomas Hardy, “Tess of the d'Urbervilles” - 1891

“Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.” Samuel Johnson, “The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia” - 1759

“to care only for well-being seems to me positively ill-bred. Whether it's good or bad, it is sometimes very pleasant, too, to smash things.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “Notes from Underground” - 1864

“There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a certain relation between our nature, such as it is, weak or strong, and the thing which pleases us.” Blaise Pascal, “Pensées” - 1670

Related topics

life pain food marriage happiness reality beauty boredom memory remembrance profit love men women flower truth foolishness God past time

Related authors

William Shakespeare (5)
Jane Austen (4)
John Green (4)
Oscar Wilde (3)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (2)
Bertrand Russell (2)
Thomas Hardy (2)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (2)
William Makepeace Thackeray (1)
Charles Dickens (1)
Aldous Huxley (1)
Theodore Roosevelt (1)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1)
Henry James (1)
Francis Bacon (1)
W. Somerset Maugham (1)
Samuel Butler (1)
John Locke (1)
Sophocles (1)
Marcus Tullius Cicero (1)

Related sources

The Fault in Our Stars (3)
Pride and Prejudice (2)
The Conquest of Happiness (2)
Tender Is the Night (2)
Twelfth Night (1)
Shakespeare's Sonnets (1)
Othello (1)
Northanger Abbey (1)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1)
The Importance of Being Earnest (1)
Vanity Fair (1)
Cymbeline (1)
The Taming of the Shrew (1)
Oliver Twist (1)
Brave New World (1)
Theodore Roosevelt; an Autobiography (1)
Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1)
The Brothers Karamazov (1)
The Scarlet Letter (1)
The Portrait of a Lady (1)