“Do not counsel what is most pleasant, but what is best.”
Solón (-638–-558 BC) Athenian legislator
Demetrius of Phalerum, "Apophthegms of the Seven Sages," in Early Greek Philosophy, vol. 2 (Loeb Classical Library, volume 525), p. 141
“For pleasure is a state of soul, and to each man that which he is said to be a lover of is pleasant…. Now for most men their pleasures are in conflict with one another because these are not by nature pleasant, but the lovers of what is noble find pleasant the things that are by nature pleasant; and virtuous actions are such… Happiness then is the best, noblest, and most pleasant thing in the world, and these attributes are not severed as in the inscription at Delos: Most noble is that which is justest, and best is health; but pleasantest is it to win what we love.”
— Aristotle, book Nicomachean Ethics
Book I, 1099a.6
Nicomachean Ethics
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Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder o… -384–-321 BCRelated quotes
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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.
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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.
“It is not the most pleasant employment to spend eight hours a day in a counting house.”
Thomas Robert Malthus Principles of Political Economy
Book II, Chapter I, On the Progress of Wealth, Section IX, p. 403
Principles of Political Economy (Second Edition 1836)
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Source: The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader