Quote '..take their pleasure in denial'?

December 16, 2008 2:19 AM

QuoteFilter: "Trust not those who advocate denial of pleasure, as they take their pleasure in denial." I don't have the correct wording, so finding the original source (and hence, correct wording) is proving difficult. Anyone?
posted by Jakey to Writing & Language (5 answers total)

Close, but not the cigar: "True pleasure belongs to the rational and self-responsible. Those who deny that pleasure is possible are neither rational nor self-responsible." - Dr. Michael Hurd, In Defense of Pleasure
posted by terranova at 2:29 AM on December 16, 2008 [2 favorites]

I've been flexing my google-fu trying to find and answer for you, so far no luck... but I can say with much authority that if you search for anything related to the phrase "denial of pleasure" you'll be rewarded with evidence spanning dozens of centuries showing just how focused some people (religious authors and philosophers especially) are on having a really really shitty time with what meager time they have on this earth.
posted by JFitzpatrick at 6:57 AM on December 16, 2008

Can you use the Louvin Brothers lyric of the same sentiment?

Others find pleasure in things I despise/I love the Christian life
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 7:03 AM on December 16, 2008

To tell you the truth, I don't see much wrong with the way you said it.
posted by dinger at 11:04 AM on December 16, 2008

I'm not the guy to prove it, but to me it sounds very much like Nietzsche. (I don't know if that's where you got it, but I'd be surprised if he doesn't say this *somewhere*.)

I'd guess it's maybe from Thus Spake Zarathustra, as much of that book- at least in the translations I've read- consists of speeches, parables and aphorisms in a biblical/Olde-Timey style.
posted by hap_hazard at 2:40 PM on December 21, 2008