“Our pleasures are not material pleasures, but symbols of pleasure – attractively packaged but inferior in content.”

“...pleasure, of course, is a slippery word.... Our pleasures ultimately belong to us, not to the pleasure's source.”

“Only a fool can be happy. For happiness consists of two contradictory elements: contentment and pleasure. Enjoy pleasure and you have no contentment; be content and you have no pleasure. For this reason happiness is conceivable only for those who enjoy themselves without thinking that they will always want more and thus be discontented, or for those who are content without thinking that they have no pleasure. Whoever reflects can never be happy, unless he is a fanatic and thus blinded…thus exercising control over his intelligence with his feelings, instead of the other way round”

“The pleasure that is in sorrow is sweeter than the pleasure of pleasure itself.”

“The advantages of developing absorption concentration are not only that it provides a stable and receptive state of mind for the practice of insight meditation. The experience of absorption is one of intense pleasure and happiness, brought about by purely mental means, which thereby automatically eclipses any pleasure arising in dependence on material objects. Thus absorption functions as a powerful antidote to sensual desires by divesting them of their former attraction.”

“We can’t turn life into a pleasure. But we can choose such pleasures as are worthy of us and our immortal souls.”