“A man of pleasure is a man of pains.”

“Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

“There is so much a man can tell you,
So much he can say.
You remain, my power, my pleasure, my pain”

Seal (musician) (1963) British singer-songwriter

“Believe me, no civilized man ever regrets a pleasure, and no uncivilized man ever knows what a pleasure is.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

“For what man has sought for is, indeed, neither pain nor pleasure, but simply Life. Man has sought to live intensely, fully, perfectly. When he can do so without exercising restraint on others, or suffering it ever, and his activities are all pleasurable to him, he will be saner, healthier, more civilised, more himself. Pleasure is Nature's test, her sign of approval. When man is happy, he is in harmony with himself and his environment.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

“Pleasure has desire in it. Desire is pain. There is no satisfaction. So pleasure is pain.”

Baba Hari Dass (1923–2018) master yogi, author, builder, commentator of Indian spiritual tradition

“I am a man without many pleasures in life, a man whose few pleasures are small, but a man whose small pleasures are very important to him. One of them is eating. One reading. Another eating while reading.”

Amanda Filipacchi book Nude Men

“That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

“a man doesn't prove he's a man by getting an erection. He's only a real man if he can pleasure a woman. And if he can pleasure a prostitute, he'll think he's the best lover on the block" -Nyah”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

“Man lives in greatest pain”

Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) late-Romantic Austrian composer