In moderate doses melancholy can be strangley comforting, darkly sweet; it can by providing contrast, give an exquisitely sharp edge to happiness, especially to pleasures of the flesh.
Poetry is one of my guilty pleasures and I want to thank you poets for providing me with beautiful words that I can devour and selfishly indulge in any time I want. ♥- - Nina Jean Slack
A string of excited, fugitive, miscellaneous pleasures is not happiness; happiness resides in imaginative reflection and judgment, when the picture of one’s life, or of human life, as it truly has been or is, satisfies the will, and is gladly accepted. - George Santayana
Expectations ruin the pleasures of life. To overcome every bad and appreciate every good, consider every day your last and take no one for granted. - Nael Gharzeddine
Through their kisses and caresses they experienced a joy and wonder the equal of which has never been known or heard of. But I shall be silent...; for the rarest and most delectable pleasures are those which are hinted at, but never told. - Chrétien de Troyes
The pleasures of the world are deceitful; they promise more than they give. They trouble us in seeking them, they do not satisfy us when possessing them and they make us despair in losing them.
Mistake not. Those pleasures are not pleasures that trouble the quiet and tranquillity of thy life. - Jeremy Taylor
The pleasures which we most rarely experience give us the greatest delight. - Desiderius Erasmus
The same refinement which brings us new pleasures, exposes us to new pains. - Edward Bulwer-Lytton
If that the world and love were young, And truth in every shepherd's tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move To live with thee and be thy love. - William Shakespeare
Our pleasures are not material pleasures, but symbols of pleasure – attractively packaged but inferior in content. - Alan W. Watts
One of the most lasting pleasures you can experience is the feeling that comes over you when you genuinely forgive an enemy - whether he knows it or not. - O.A. Battista
What?" I asked."Nothing," he said."Why are you looking at me like that?"Augustus half smiled. "Because you're beautiful. I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence. - John Green
I consider being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill. - Samuel Butler
It is only a poor sort of happiness that could ever come by caring very much about our own pleasures. We can only have the highest happiness such as goes along with being a great man, by having wide thoughts and much feeling for the rest of the world as well as ourselves. - George Eliot
Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are ‘patches of Godlight’ in the woods of our experience. - C.S. Lewis
Never let the demands of tomorrow interfere with the pleasures and excitement of today. - Meredith Willson
And he, like many jaded people, had few pleasures left in life save good food and drink. - Honoré de Balzac
Transcend the terrestrial; surpass the celestial, from nature’s hands when you receive the sublime pleasures of dance. - Shah Asad Rizvi
Thought is the greatest of pleasures —pleasure itself is only imagination—have you ever enjoyed anything more than your dreams? - Gustave Flaubert
Words cannot do justice to the pleasures of a good bookshop. Ironically.( Trafalgar Square) - Waterstones
The key to finding happiness in this life is realizing that the only way to overcome is to transcend; to find happiness in the simple pleasures, to master the art of just being. - Brianna Wiest
I like hearing myself talk. It is one of my greatest pleasures. I often have long conversations all by myself and I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a word of what I'm saying. - Oscar Wilde
The past with its pleasures, its rewards, its foolishness, it punishments, is there for each of us forever, and it should be. - Lillian Hellman
When from our better selves we have too longBeen parted by the hurrying world, and droop,Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired,How gracious, how benign, is Solitude - William Wordsworth
There is love in holding and there is love in letting go. Elizabeth Berg, The Year of Pleasures - Madelon Phillips
...the pleasures of literary fiction are the pleasures of orientation; the pleasures of literature are the pleasures of bewilderment. - Toby Litt
Be wise and resist pleasures. A fool always seeks pleasures. - Debasish Mridha
I like hearing myself talk. It is one of my greatest pleasures. I often have long conversations all by myself, and I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying. - Oscar Wilde
One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other. - Jane Austen
We look to the accumulation of sensory pleasures to give our lives meaning. We have the ability now to consume anything we want and this capacity far exceeds our actual needs. With so much at our fingertips, a kind of gluttony pervades our mind-sets. - Mark Epstein
To look in the eyes of the one you live with & see true love is indeed the purest of pleasures - Faye Hall
There are greater goals in life than material and sensual pleasures - Imran Khan
Hatred has its pleasures. It is therefore often the compensation bywhich a frightened man reimburses himself for the miseries of Fear. The more he fears, the more he will hate. - Screwtape - C.S. Lewis
We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer tasting them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age. - Charles Caleb Colton
One enjoyed the mental pleasures through ignorance (of the Self), and that is cause of the worldly life. Only the bliss of the ‘Knowledge’ [of the Soul, one’s True Self] is to be enjoyed. - Dada Bhagwan
There is nothing that exists outside or inside to punish us or take a note of every action of ours, but it’s our own understanding towards life, that allows us to experience, different pain and pleasures of life. - Roshan Sharma
Love feels like a great misfortune, a monstrous parasite, a permanent state of emergency that ruins all small pleasures. - Slavoj Žižek
It's also helpful to realize that this very body that we have, that's sitting right here right now... with its aches and it pleasures... is exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, fully alive. - Pema Chodron
The soul's joys are greater than the heart's pleasures. - Matshona Dhliwayo
THESE ARE THE REASONS, THEN, FOR WHICH A MAN CAN BE CONFIDENT ABOUT THE FATE OF HIS SOUL – AS LONG AS IN LIFE HE HAS…DEVOTED HIMSELF TO THE PLEASURES OF AQUIRING KNOWLEDGE …WITH SELF CONTROL, AND GOODNESS, AND COURAGE, AND LIBERALITY, AND TRUTH…SOCRATES’ LAST WORDS IN PLATO’S PHAEDO - Dean Chavooshian
Sinful and forbidden pleasures are like poisoned bread; they may satisfy appetite for the moment, but there is death in them at the end.
The world is so constructed, that if you wish to enjoy its pleasures, you must also endure its pains. Whether you like it or not, you cannot have one without the other.
I would like The Discovery of Poetry to be a field guide to the natural pleasures of language - a happiness we were born to have. - Frances Mayes
I’m surrounding by beautiful sounds, my son singing in his room and a gentle rain. There are so many simple pleasures God gives us we just have to listen for them. - Ron Baratono
He who indulges habitually in the intoxicating pleasures of imagination, for the very reason that he reaps a greater pleasure than others, must resign himself to a keener pain, a more intolerable and utter prostration. - Robert Louis Stevenson
Orwell wrote easily and well about small humane pursuits, such as bird watching, gardening and cooking, and did not despise popular pleasures like pubs and vulgar seaside resorts. In many ways, his investigations into ordinary life and activity prefigure what we now call 'cultural studies. - Christopher Hitchens
Expensive pleasures will soon bring the richest person down. - Stephen Richards
It is very strange, and very melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them. - Samuel Johnson
The philosopher is a person who refuses no pleasures which do not produce greater sorrows, and who knows how to create new ones. - Giacomo Casanova
Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another. - Madonna
One of the simple but genuine pleasures in life is getting up in the morning and hurrying to a mousetrap you set the night before. - Kin Hubbard
The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others. - Bertrand Russell
When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality. - Henry David Thoreau
In the sweetness of friendship; let there be laughter and the sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed. - Kahlil Gibran
If I have done anything, even a little, to help small children enjoy honest, simple pleasures, I have done a bit of good. - Beatrix Potter
Illusion is the first of all pleasures. - Oscar Wilde
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. - John Howard Payne
Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy. - Mahatma Gandhi
most of us can only deny short-term pleasures because we see a realistic path between self-denial now and something better down the road. - David Brooks
To torture a man you have to know his pleasures. - Stanisław Lem
The World has not evolved into what it is today to specifically meet my pleasures. - Sammy Sutton
Let go of temporary pleasures for a permanent joy. - Lailah Gifty Akita
Although the constant shadow of certain death looms over everyday, the pleasures and joys of life can be so fine and affecting that the heart is nearly stilled in astonishment.
That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. - Henry David Thoreau
To make pleasures pleasant, shorten them. - Charles Buxton
The pleasures of writing correspond exactly to the pleasures of reading - Vladimir Nabokov
I think reading is a gift. It was a gift that was given to me as a child by many people, and now as an adult and a writer, I'm trying to give a little of it back to others. It's one of the greatest pleasures I know. - Ann M. Martin
Simple pleasures are the last refuge of the complex. - Oscar Wilde
I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex. - Oscar Wilde
The real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong. - Laura Ingalls Wilder
I care not that this moment’s lot was thin and sparsely dealt; all pleasures sweet can be forgot the instant they are felt. - Roman Payne
Love affairs are for emotional sprinters; the pleasures of love are for the emotional marathoners. - Robertson Davies
Choose your pleasures for yourself, and do not let them be imposed upon you. - Lord Chesterfield
One half of the world can not understand the pleasures of the other. - Jane Austen
All pleasures contain an element of sadness. - Jonathan Eibeschutz
Physical pleasures are not associated with attachment-abhorrence; the belief in an opinion itself is attachment-abhorrence. - Dada Bhagwan
We should allow ourselves all pleasures, real or imaginary. - Marty Rubin
Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious. - Thomas Aquinas
Pleasures are cheap to find, if you find the roots of true pain, you're going to achieve the fruits of true glory. - Ashutosh Naliapara
Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones. - Seneca
No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures. - Samuel Johnson
Partake of some of life's sweet pleasures. And yes, get comfortable with yourself. - Oprah Winfrey
Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you. - Harold Bloom
The rich of this world will vanish like smoke, and no memory of their past pleasures will remain. But even in their lifetime they do not enjoy them without bitterness, weariness and fear, for the very things whence they derive their pleasures often carry with them the seeds of sorrow. - Kempis 1380-1471 Thomas
You are an ocean in a drop of dew,all the universes in a thin sack of blood.What are these pleasures then,these joys, these worldsthat you keep reaching for,hoping they will make you more alive? - Jalaluddin Rumi
Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. - C.S. Lewis
To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it. - Charles Caleb Colton
To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it. The pains of power are real; its pleasures imaginary.
Petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of reality. - Henry David Thoreau
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and the sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed. - Kahlil Gibran
I want to be with God all the time. But I don't want to be a monk, or totally give up worldly pleasures. I guess what i want to learn is how to live in this world and enjoy its delights, but also devote myself to God. - Elizabeth Gilbert
What we glean from travellers' vivid descriptions has a special charm; whatever is far off and suggestive excites our imagination; such pleasures tempt us far more than anything we may daily experience in the narrow circle of sedentary life. - Alexander von Humboldt
Oh, remember this, the sweetness of religion is incomparably more than all the pleasures of sense. - William Bates
I despise making the most of one's time. Half of the pleasures of life consist of the opportunities one has neglected. - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
A man, to be greatly good, must magine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and in many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. - Percy Bysshe Shelley
Of all the riches that we hug, of all the pleasures we enjoy, we can carry no more out of this world than out of a dream.
The pleasures of living is loving! - Anthony Liccione
Vanity might be a "sin" according to some lights, but he thought in measured doses it was one of life's allowable simple pleasures. It helped everyone get through their days. - G.M. Malliet
The friendships of the world are oft confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasures. - Joseph Addison