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Hedonism is the belief that pleasure is the most important goal in life

• Hedonism: The belief that pleasure or happiness is the most important goal in life.  Merriam Webster Dictionary
• Hedonism: The ethical theory that pleasure (in the sense of the satisfaction of desires) is the highest good and proper aim of human life.  Oxford Dictionary
• Pleasure is in itself a good; nay, even setting aside immunity from pain, the only good. Jeremy Bentham
• Pleasure is the object, duty and the goal of all rational creatures. Voltaire
• Man’s sole duty is to produce as much pleasure as possible. Susan Hubbard
• Pleasure,  Enjoyment,  Savouring,  Addiction,  Cravings,  Desire,  Lust

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Hedonism lives for pleasure

• Pleasure is the only thing to live for. Nothing ages like happiness.  Oscar Wilde
• There is a beast in man that should be exercised, not exorcised. I dont crave companionship. It stands in my way. I live for pleasure. There are few persons who can give me as much pleasure as those acts I perform myself. I would rather create pleasure according to my own whim than be subjected to the whims of others. Anton LaVey

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Hedonism always yields to temptation

• The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself. Oscar Wilde
• Temptation

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Hedonism believes pleasure should never be delayed for life is short

• Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend, Before we too into the Dust descend. Omar Khayyám
• Life admits not of delays; when pleasure can be had, it is fit to catch it: every hour takes away part of the things that please us, and perhaps part of our disposition to be pleased. Samuel Johnson
• Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, Sermons and soda-water the day after. George Gordon Noel Byron
• Well, I woke up this morning, and I got myself a beer. The future’s uncertain, and the end is always near. Jim Morrison
• Enjoy yourself – it’s later than you think.  Chinese Proverb
• My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate —that’s my philosophy. Thornton Wilder
• Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations? Jane Austen

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Only by seizing pleasure can you gather some roses amongst life’s thorns

• It is only by enlarging the scope of one’s tastes and one’s fantasies, by sacrificing everything to pleasure, that that unfortunate individual called man, thrown despite himself into this sad world, can succeed in gathering a few roses among life’s thorns. Marquis de Sade
• My grandfather always said that living is like licking honey off a thorn. Louis Adamic
• Life is little more than a loan shark: It exacts a very high rate of interest for the few pleasures it concedes.  Luigi Pirandello
• Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain. John Selden
• Every act by which pleasure is reaped, without any result of pain, is pure gain to happiness; every act whose results of pain are less than the results of pleasure, is good, to the extent of the balance in favour of happiness. Jeremy Bentham

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Experiencing pleasure in life is a deep human need

• Without pleasure man would live like a fool and soon die.  Pierre de Beaumarchais
• Human beings need pleasure the way they need vitamins.  Lionel Tiger
• Pleasure is the structure of society. From childhood until death we are secretly, cunningly or obviously pursuing pleasure. So whatever our form of pleasure is, I think we should be very clear about it because it is going to guide and shape our lives. It is therefore important for each one of us to investigate closely, hesitantly and delicately this question of pleasure, for to find pleasure, and then nourish and sustain it, is a basic demand of life and without it existence becomes dull, stupid, lonely and meaningless. Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Human needs

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Without pleasure, life would be dreary and dull

• Without pleasure there is no sight or measure.  Dejan Stojanovic
• What destroys a man more quickly than to work, think and feel without inner necessity, without any deep personal desire, without pleasure – as a mere automaton of duty? Friedrich Nietzsche
• Without pleasure, existence becomes dull, stupid, lonely and meaningless. Jiddu Krishnamurti

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The purpose of life is to enjoy it

• I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it. Rita Mae Brown
• Enjoyment

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Be aware that pleasure can come at a price though …

• The highway of pleasure is crossed by many toll-gates. Lewis F. Korns
• As a grim skull lies covered beneath the fairest face; so does an abyss of torment lie beneath the surface of the glittering sea of sensual pleasure and dissipation. William Scott Downey
• Pleasure is the sun of the morning, the cloud of the meridian, and the storm of the evening. William Scott Downey
• True pleasures are paid for in advance; false pleasures afterwards, with heavy and compound interest.
• All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink: Each has his share; and who would more obtain, shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain. Alexander Pope
• This is how we are with wine and beautiful food… we want and we get drunk with wanting, then the headache and bitterness afterward. Rumi
• In diving to the bottom of pleasure we bring up more gravel than pearls. Honore de Balzac
• 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. Madame De Lambert

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… especially if you over-indulge …

• Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains. Democritus
• This is how we are with wine and beautiful food… we want and we get drunk with wanting, then the headache and bitterness afterward. Rumi
• So called pleasures, when they go beyond a certain limit, are but punishments. Seneca
• An over-indulgence of anything, even something as pure as water, can intoxicate. Criss Jami
• Pleasure admitted in undue degree, enslaves the will, nor leaves the judgment free. William Cowper
• He that would have the perfection of pleasure, must be moderate in the use of it. Benjamin Whichcote
• Excess

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… or become addicted

• We can often endure an extra pound of pain far more easily than we can suffer the withdrawal of an ounce of accustomed pleasure. Sydney J. Harris
• Letting go is the lesson. Letting go is always the lesson. Have you ever noticed how much of our agony is all tied up with craving and loss? Susan Gordon Lydon
• For some, pleasure is a fever they can’t shake… Terri Guillemets
• Becoming attached to a pleasure makes you a slave to it
• It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them. Epictetus
• Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it. Benjamin Franklin
• Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it. Thomas Jefferson
• Everyone is dragged on by their favorite pleasure. Virgil
• Pleasure, like a kind of bait, is thrown before everything which is really bad, and easily allures greedy souls to the hook of perdition. Epictetus
• The search for pleasure is circular, repetitive, atemporal. The variety seeking of the spectator, the thrill hunter, the sexually promiscuous, always ends in the same place. It has an end. It comes to the end and has to start over. It is not a journey and return, but a closed cycle, a locked room, a cell. Ursula K. Le Guin
• Addiction

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A life devoted to non-stop pleasure holds little pleasure

• I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure. John D. Rockefeller
• A life of pleasure makes even the strongest mind frivolous at last. Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
• A life of mere pleasure! A little while, in the spring-time of the senses, in the sunshine of prosperity, in the jubilee of health, it may seem well enough. But how insufficient, how mean, how terrible when age comes, and sorrow, and death! A life of pleasure! What does it look like when these great changes beat against it– when the realities of eternity stream in? It looks like the fragments of a feast, when the sun shines upon the withered garlands, and the tinsel, and the overturned tables, and the dead lees of wine. H. Chapin
• Oh, how desperately bored, in spite of their grim determination to have a Good Time, the majority of pleasure-seekers really are! Aldous Huxley

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An excess of pleasure palls the appetite rather than pleases it

• To make pleasures pleasant, shorten them. Charles Buxton
• We must always skim over pleasures. They are like marshy lands that we must travel nimbly, hardly daring to put down our feet. Bernard de Fontenelle
• Pleasure is labour too, and tires as much. William Cowper
• The excess if delight palls our appetites rather than pleases. Wellins Calcott
• In everything, satiety closely follows the greatest pleasures. Marcus T. Cicero
• If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please. Epictetus
• The mother of excess is not joy but joylessness. Friedrich Nietzsche

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In excess, pleasures become punishments

• So called pleasures, when they go beyond a certain limit, are but punishments. Seneca
• Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains. Democritus

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An excess of even a good thing can be harmful

• Even a good thing can become destructive if taken to excess. Brandon Sanderson
• Even nectar is poison if taken to excess. Hindu Proverb
• Excess of joy is harder to bear than any amount of sorrow. Honore de Balzac

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Pleasure always promises more than it gives

• 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. Madame de Lambert

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Realise that real happiness is far deeper than simple pleasure

• Pleasure is a river running to the sea; happiness is the full, calm sea. Peter Kreeft
• Happiness is different from pleasure. Happiness has something to do with struggling and enduring and accomplishing. George Sheehan
• Don’t mistake pleasure for happiness. They are a different breed of dogs. Josh Billings
• The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount. Joseph Addison
• Pleasure is not happiness. It has no more importance than a shadow following a man. Muhammad Ali
• Pleasure may come from illusion, but happiness can come only of reality. Sebastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort
• To find recreation in amusement is not happiness. Blaise Pascal
• Happiness

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Pleasure comes from the outside, happiness from the inside

• Pleasure is great – but it doesn’t last. Pleasure comes from your five senses. From a great meal, a nice glass of wine and a new car. Nothing wrong with these things – they make the experience of life better. But they are fleeeting… Happiness is the DNA of pleasure. My point is simply this: Pleasure comes from something on the outside. Happiness comes from within. It’s a state you create by choice. It’s a decision. It’s an act of will. People can be happy while they are going through great pain and adversity. There’s no pleasure evident in their external lives yet they are content on the inside. And conversely, tons of people are surrounded by pleasure (fast cars, nice homes, great clothes) but there is no joy within. So choose to be happy.   Robin Sharma
• Pleasure comes from the outside, happiness from the inside. Remez Sasson

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Pleasure comes from the senses, happiness from the soul

• If hedonic happiness is the happiness of the senses, then eudaemonic happiness is the happiness of the soul. It is found in activities that are aligned with our fundamental human needs for meaning, connection, and personal growth, and it brings a sense of engagement, contentment, and fulfillment. This is the happiness we feel when we spend time with loved ones and when we grow as people. Unlike with hedonic happiness, time spent in eudaemonic pursuits fundamentally changes us, allowing us to flourish and grow as individuals and as communities. Craig & Marc Kielburger
• The senses,  The soul

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Pleasure comes from amusement, happiness comes from a life of meaning and purpose

• Pleasure is the last resort of the desperate. Happy people do not need to be amused. Thomas Carlyle
• It is the paradox of life that the way to miss pleasure is to seek it first. The very first condition of lasting happiness is that a life should be full of purpose, aiming at something outside self. Hugo L. Black
• Although hedonic pleasures have their place, it is crucial that we don’t allow them to distract or discourage us from pursuing the deeper sense of well-being that only eudaemonic happiness can bring. When we pursue this kind of happiness, we reach beyond ourselves, moving from a mentality of Me toward an appreciation of We. In our experience, this is a process that begins when you find the courage to reexamine your goals and values, the patience to look for the meaning in what you do, and the inner strength necessary to live a life of purpose. Craig & Marc Kielburger
• Meaning,  Purpose

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Be moderate in hedonistic pleasure, but not in enjoyment – for surely that’s what life’s about

• Life’s a party. Invite yourself.  Gary Johnson
• So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink and be merry. Bible
• And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God. Ecclesiastes 3:13
• There is no cure for birth or death save to enjoy the interval. George Sautayana
• I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it. Rita Mae Brown
• All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it! Bob Newhart
• All the animals except man know that the principal business in life is to enjoy it. Samuel Butler
• He has spent his life best who has enjoyed it most. Samuel Butler
• I suspect that those who most enjoy heaven will be those who most enjoyed life. Robert Brault
• If you know life is supposed to be fun, you know more than almost anybody else knows. Abraham-Hicks
• The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it’s all that matters. Audrey Hepburn
• You were made for enjoyment, and the world was filled with things which you will enjoy, unless you are too proud to be pleased by them, or too grasping to care for what you cannot turn to other account than mere delight. John Ruskin
• To enjoy and give enjoyment, without injury to yourself or others; this is true morality. Nicolas Chamfort
• It’s fun to get together and have something good to eat at least once a day. That’s what human life is all about —enjoying things. Julia Child
• Balance,  Moderation

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• America is the first culture in jeopardy of amusing itself to death. John Piper
• Everyone praises the endurance of the ascetic, but no one appreciates the stamina of the hedonist. To laugh until the throat burns and smoke a cigar to soothe it, to black out but not pass out, to love without climax, to be immortal in the moment – what stoic has such fortitude? Bauvard
• A man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry. Hebrew Bible
• A true voluptuary will never abandon his mind to the grossness of reality. It is by exalting the earthly, the material, the physique of our pleasures, by veiling these ideas, by forgetting them altogether, or, at least, never naming them hardly to one’s self, that we alone can prevent them from disgusting. George Gordon Noel Byron
• God forgive me, I do still see that my nature is not to be quite conquered, but will esteem pleasure above all things; though, yet in the middle of it, it hath reluctancy after my business, which is neglected by my following my pleasure. However, music and women I cannot but give way to, whatever my business is. Samuel Pepys
• I do not find fault with equality for drawing men into the pursuit of forbidden pleasures, but for absorbing them entirely in the search for the pleasures that are permitted. Alexis de Tocqueville
• I feel like there is always something trying to pull us back into sleep, that there is this sort of seductive quality in all the hedonistic pleasures that pull on us. Bell Hooks
• Retirement requires the invention of a new hedonism, not a return to the hedonism of youth. Mason Cooley
• The philosophy of hedonism means little to lovers of pleasure. They have no inclination to read philosophy, or to write it. ShareMason Cooley
• To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of movement. Joseph Addison
• Yet many human beings, resigned to sensuality and indolence, un-instructed and unimproved, have passed through life like travellers in a strange country. Sallust

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• Name me, if you can, a better feeling than the one you get when you’ve half a bottle of Chivas in the bag with a gram of coke up your nose and a teenage lovely pulling off her tube top in the next seat over while you’re doing a hundred miles an hour in a suburban side street. J. O’Rourke
• Abstainer: A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. Ambrose Bierce
• As life’s pleasures go, food is second only to sex. Except for salami and eggs. Now that’s better than sex, but only if the salami is thickly sliced. Alan King
• I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex. Oscar Wilde
• It is a fact of human nature that we derive pleasure from watching others engage in pleasurable acts. This explains the popularity of two enterprises: pornography and cafés. Eric Weiner
• One should be just as careful in choosing one’s pleasures as in avoiding calamities.  Chinese proverb
• There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward. John Mortimer

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