“The greatest defect of common education is, that we are in the habit of putting pleasure all on one side, and weariness on the other; all weariness in study, all pleasure in idleness.”

— François Fénelon

Remarquez un grand défaut des éducations ordinaires: on met tout le plaisir d'un côté , et tout l'ennui de l'autre; tout l'ennui dans l'étude, tout le plaisir dans les divertissements.
De l'éducation des filles, ch. 5, cited from De l’éducation des filles, dialogues des morts et opuscules divers (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1857) p. 21; translation from Selections from the Writings of Fénelon (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, Little and Wilkins, 1829) p. 72.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The greatest defect of common education is, that we are in the habit of putting pleasure all on one side, and weariness…" by François Fénelon?

François Fénelon photo

François Fénelon43

Catholic bishop 1651–1715

Related quotes

“One who loves God retains this humility at all times, not with weariness and struggle, but with pleasure and gladness.”

Walter Hilton (1340–1396) English Augustinian mystic.

Book II, ch. 37 (p. 214)
The Ladder of Perfection (1494)

“I am absolutely convinced that meaninglessness does not come form being weary of pain; meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure.”

Ravi Zacharias (1946) Indian philosopher

Source: Can Man Live Without God

“I'm weary, I'm weary. Oh! pleasure is pain
When its spell has been broken again and again.
I am weary of smiles that are bought and are sold,
I am weary of beauty whose fetters are gold,
I am weary of wealth—what makes it of me
But that which the basest and lowest might be?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

The Golden Violet - The Eastern King
The Golden Violet (1827)

“I am absolutely convinced that meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain; meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure. And that is why we find ourselves emptied of meaning with our pantries still full.”

Ravi Zacharias (1946) Indian philosopher

Source: Can Man Live Without God

“What is greatly desired, but long deferred, gives little pleasure, when at length it is ours, for we have lived with it in imagination until we have grown weary of it, having ourselves, in the meanwhile, become other.”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), pp. 180-181

“If the mind is wearied by study, or the body worn with sickness,
It is well to lie fallow for a while, in the vacancy of sheer amusement;
But when thou prosprest in health, and thine intellect can soar untired,
To seek uninstructive pleasure is to slumber on the couch of indolence.”

Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810–1889) English writer and poet

Of Recreation.
Proverbial Philosophy (1838-1849)

“Sexual intercourse consumes time, requires much effort, absorbs a huge part of energy. But it gives such dose of pleasure, that all of these defects don't matter.”

Jerzy Vetulani (1936–2017) Polish scientist

Vetulani, Jerzy (2008): Mózg, seks i nagrody. Charaktery, 1(5), pp. 41–43 (in Polish).

“The mother as a social servant instead of a home servant will not lack in true mother duty…. From her work, loved and honored though it is, she will return to her home life, the child life, with an eager, ceaseless pleasure, cleansed of all the fret and fraction and weariness that so mar it now.”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American feminist, writer, commercial artist, lecturer and social reformer

Source: Women and Economics (1898), Ch. 13.

“Pains of love be sweeter far
Than all other pleasures are.”

John Dryden (1631–1700) English poet and playwright of the XVIIth century

Variant: Pains of love be sweeter far
Than all other pleasures are.

“The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure.”

Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer

As quoted in Art Smart (2007) by Alan Bryce

Related topics