“To make pleasures pleasant, shorten them.”
Source: Notes of Thought (1883), p. 122
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Charles Buxton11
English brewer, philanthropist, writer and politician 1823–1871Related quotes
Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist
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Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
Context: Complementary to his is Thurber's remark that "humour is a kind of emotional chaos, told about quietly and calmly in retrospect". Emotional chaos is not pleasant; distillation of that chaos afterward may perhaps be pleasant in some of its aspects, and undoubtedly gives pleasure to others.
Baltasar Gracián book The Art of Worldly Wisdom
Muchas cosas de gusto no se han de poseer en propiedad. … Gózanse las cosas ajenas con doblada fruición, esto es, sin el riesgo del daño y con el gusto de la novedad.
Maxim 263
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“Some persons make promises for the pleasure of breaking them.”
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer
No. 413
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
“It is not pleasure that makes life worth living. It is life that makes pleasure worth having.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
“It is requisite to choose the most excellent life; for custom will make it pleasant.”
Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher
"Pythagorean Ethical Sentences From Stobæus" (1904)
Florilegium
Context: It is requisite to choose the most excellent life; for custom will make it pleasant. Wealth is an infirm anchor, glory is still more infirm; and in a similar manner, the body, dominion, and honour. For all these are imbecile and powerless. What then are powerful anchors. Prudence, magnanimity, fortitude. These no tempest can shake. This is the Law of God, that virtue is the only thing that is strong; and that every thing else is a trifle.