“Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure when he is really selling himself a slave to it.”
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
“Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within.”
The Power of Now (1997)
from "In a few days now when two memories meet", 1964
The Poems of J. V. Cunningham, edited by Timothy Steele, Ohio University Press/Swallow Press, 1997, ISBN 0-804-00997-X
Other poetry
The Art of Persuasion
§ III
1910s, At the Feet of the Master (1911)
“But he who neither thinks for himself nor learns from others, is a failure as a man.”
Source: Works and Days and Theogony
Chap. VI: The Dissection Of The Mass-Man Begins
The Revolt of the Masses (1929)
Context: Even to-day, in spite of some signs which are making a tiny breach in that sturdy faith, even to-day, there are few men who doubt that motorcars will in five years' time be more comfortable and cheaper than to-day. They believe in this as they believe that the sun will rise in the morning. The metaphor is an exact one. For, in fact, the common man, finding himself in a world so excellent, technically and socially, believes that it has been produced by nature, and never thinks of the personal efforts of highly-endowed individuals which the creation of this new world presupposed. Still less will he admit the notion that all these facilities still require the support of certain difficult human virtues, the least failure of which would cause the rapid disappearance of the whole magnificent edifice.… These traits together make up the well-known psychology of the spoilt child.
