virgin islands scene

Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.
-- Lauren Bacall
 

 

Thursday, October 30, 1997

In pursuit of pleasure

Pleasure is a wonderful reward, but not an end in itself. To seek empty pleasure for its own sake, is to miss the value and the joy that pleasure brings. Pleasure truly “feels good” only when it is not sought directly.

True pleasure comes as the result of a reaching a goal, or achieving some purpose. You cannot create pleasure. Pleasure comes only as a by product of another activity. As an end in itself, pleasure is empty and meaningless. Like the junkie who craves the next high, those who seek pleasure alone, find no lasting fulfillment.

To bypass the activity, and go straight for the pleasure, defeats the purpose, and robs pleasure of its joy and meaning. When “feeling good” has no depth, it adds no value, no joy, to your life. Pleasure is a reward. It is not a lifestyle. By all means, one should enjoy as much pleasure as possible. But only pleasure that is rightly earned, can be pleasure at all.

— Ralph Marston

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Copyright ©1997 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All Rights Reserved. The Daily Motivator is provided for your personal, non-commercial use only. Other than personal sharing, please do not re-distribute without permission.