“It can never be wrong to give pleasure.”
"Gossip in a Library"
In the Name of the Bodleian, and Other Essays
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Augustine Birrell 11
British politician 1850–1933Related quotes
“I give so much pleasure to so many people. Why can I not get some pleasure for myself?”
Quoted in: Robert Andrews (2003), The New Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations. p. 144
“You can never say the wrong thing.”
Variant: You can never set off to do the wrong thing.
Source: Haunted (2005), Chapter 4
Context: "It's not a matter of right and wrong," Mr. Whittier would say. Really, there is no wrong. Not in our minds. Our own reality. You can never set off to do the wrong thing. You can never say the wrong thing. In your own mind, you are always right. Every action you take--what you do or say or how you choose to appear--is automatically right the moment you act.
“The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure.”
As quoted in Art Smart (2007) by Alan Bryce
“It is not sex that gives the pleasure, but the lover.”
“In the end, a theory that can’t be shown to be wrong can never be shown to be right.”
Source: Faith vs. Fact (2015), p. 34
“A scholar can never let mere wrongness get in the way of the theory.”
Source: “And there aren’t any.”
“Mmm,” I said. “Awkward.”
“That’s defeatist talk. I’ll cobble something together. A scholar can never let mere wrongness get in the way of the theory.”
Source: Embassytown (2011), Chapter 0.3 (p. 37)
“Give them pleasure – the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.”
On audiences, Asbury Park NJ Press (13 August 1974).
