#pleasure

You have a hierarchy of values; pleasure is at the bottom of the ladder, and you speak with a little thrill of self-satisfaction, of duty, charity, and truthfulness. You think pleasure is only of the senses; the wretched slaves who manufactured your morality despised a satisfaction which they had small means of enjoying. You would not be so frightened if I had spoken of happiness instead of pleasure: it sounds less shocking, and your mind wonders from the sty of Epicurus to his garden. But I will speak of pleasure, for I see that men aim at that, and I do not know that they aim at happiness. It is pleasure that lurks in the practice of every one of your virtues. Man performs actions because they are good for him, and when they are good for other people as well they are thought virtuous: if he finds pleasure in giving alms he is charitable; if he finds pleasure in helping others he is benevolent; if he finds pleasure in working for society he is public-spirited; but it is for your private pleasure that you give twopence to a beggar as much as it is for my private pleasure that I drink another whiskey and soda. I, less of a humbug than you, neither applaud myself for my pleasure nor demand your admiration. ↗

— W. Somerset Maugham

#pleasure #values #men

Happy indeed is the scientist who not only has the pleasures which I have enumerated, but who also wins the recognition of fellow scientists and of the mankind which ultimately benefits from his endeavors. ↗

— Irving Langmuir

#benefits #endeavors #enumerated #fellow #happy

The Term Paper Artist' represents two models of writing, one of the little boy bouncing his ball, generating stories for the sheer pleasure of it, and the besieged adult, writing to make a living, having to contend with a very competitive, very unreliable world in which public image counts. ↗

— David Leavitt

#artist #ball #bouncing #boy #competitive

The ugly is very appealing to man. It's instinct. One shrinks from the ugly, yet wants to look at it. There's a devilish fascination in it. We extract pleasure from horror. ↗

— Sonya Levien

#devilish #extract #fascination #horror #instinct

L.A. still ranks as one of my guilty pleasures, along with butter-pecan ice cream and Coldplay albums. ↗

— Damian Lewis

#along #coldplay #cream #guilty #ice

I know my corn plants intimately, and I find it a great pleasure to know them. ↗

— Barbara McClintock

#find #great #great pleasure #i #intimately

You want to feel that you can do something creative that you love without being picked apart and mutilated for other people's pleasure. ↗

— Sienna Miller

#being #creative #feel #love #other

If I had my choice, I'd pick a song that tells a story every time. There is a great deal of pleasure in doing the vocal on a number that you can put feeling into. ↗

— Vaughn Monroe

#deal #doing #every #every time #feeling

I appreciate the 'Surreal Life.' I had a really positive experience on that show, and with those people. I found some love in my heart for religion again, and had the support of a new family of friends. I wouldn't have had the pleasure of meeting those people, if we were not all placed in that fishbowl. ↗

— Vince Neil

#appreciate #experience #family #found #friends

Beauty and brains, pleasure and usability - they should go hand in hand. ↗

— Donald Norman

#brains #go #hand #pleasure #should