“The greatest satisfaction comes not from chasing pleasure and avoiding pain, but from the radical acceptance of life as it is, without fighting and clinging to passing desires.”

“The end of life is not to be happy, nor to achieve pleasure and avoid pain, but to do the will of God, come what may.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

“Suffering comes from desire, not from pain.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

“One of the greatest satisfactions in life comes from getting things done and knowing you have done them to the best of your ability.”

Robert W. Bly (1957) American writer

“The difficulty we have in accepting responsibility for our behavior lies in the desire to avoid the pain of the consequences of that behavior.”

M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) American psychiatrist

“Pleasure is oft a visitant; but pain
Clings cruelly to us.”

John Keats Endymion

“Hate comes from the past, fear from the future. Pain and pleasure are now, and therefore their own trap.”

Steven Barnes (1952) American writer and author

“At this stage, some people might advise me to focus on pleasure and avoid any kind of pain—But where can we hide from pain when it finds us unprepared?”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“We are content to accept without testing any belief that fits in with our prejudices and whose truth is necessary for the satisfaction of our desires.”

Susan Stebbing (1885–1943) British philosopher

“The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy