“To make pleasures pleasant, shorten them.”

—  Charles Buxton

Source: Notes of Thought (1883), p. 122

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Dec. 14, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "To make pleasures pleasant, shorten them." by Charles Buxton?
Charles Buxton photo
Charles Buxton 11
English brewer, philanthropist, writer and politician 1823–1871

Related quotes

Alain photo

“Certainly thinking is pleasant, but the pleasure of thinking must be subordinated to the art of making decisions.”

Alain (1868–1951) French philosopher

Ceremonies
Alain On Happiness (1928)

Samuel Butler photo

“My notes always grow longer if I shorten them. I mean the process of compression makes them more pregnant and they breed new notes.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Making Notes
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part VII - On the Making of Music, Pictures, and Books

“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.”

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 photo

“Many pleasant things are better when they belong to someone else. … When things belong to others, we enjoy them twice as much, without the risk of losing them, and with the pleasure of novelty.”

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
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

Aristotle photo

“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

William Hazlitt photo

“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)

Arthur Hugh Clough photo

“I sit at my table en grand seigneur,
And when I have done, throw a crust to the poor;
Not only the pleasure, one’s self, of good living,
But also the pleasure of now and then giving.
So pleasant it is to have money, heigh ho!
So pleasant it is to have money.”

Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) English poet

Dipsychus, Pt. II, sc. ii.

Arthur Schopenhauer photo

“Pleasure is never as pleasant as we expected it to be and pain is always more painful. The pain in the world always outweighs the pleasure. If you don't believe it, compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is eating the other.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher
Pythagoras photo

“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.

Related topics