pleasure (n.)
- affability
- agreeability
- agreeableness
- alternative
- amenity
- amiability
- amicability
- amusement
- animus
- appetence
- appetency
- appetite
- ardor
- behest
- bidding
- bliss
- blissfulness
- choice
- comfort
- command
- commandment
- compatibility
- complaisance
- concupiscence
- congeniality
- contentment
- cordiality
- curiosity
- decision
- delectation
- delight
- desire
- determination
- dictate
- dictation
- discretion
- disposition
- diversion
- drive
- eagerness
- enjoyableness
- enjoyment
- entertainment
- fancy
- fantasy
- felicitousness
- felicity
- fruition
- geniality
- goodness
- graciousness
- gratification
- happiness
- harmoniousness
- hest
- hope
- imperative
- inclination
- intention
- joy
- kick
- libido
- liking
- lust
- mellowness
- mind
- mirth
- need
- niceness
- objective
- option
- order
- passion
- pastime
- pleasance
- pleasingness
- preference
- rapport
- recreation
- relaxation
- relish
- resolution
- satisfaction
- say-so
- solace
- sweetness
- thrill
- urge
- velleity
- volition
- want
- will
- wish
- word
Rich the treasure,
Sweet the pleasure,—
Sweet is pleasure after pain.
When I consider life, 't is all a cheat.
Yet fool'd with hope, men favour the deceit;
Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay.
To-morrow's falser than the former day;
Lies worse, and while it says we shall be blest
With some new joys, cuts off what we possest.
Strange cozenage! none would live past years again,
Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain;
And from the dregs of life think to receive
What the first sprightly running could not give.
Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows;
While proudly riding o'er the azure realm
In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes,
Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm;
Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway,
That hush'd in grim repose expects his evening prey.
Often have I sighed to measure
By myself a lonely pleasure,—
Sighed to think I read a book,
Only read, perhaps, by me.
Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure
Thrill the deepest notes of woe.
On the approach of spring I withdraw without reluctance from the noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure.
Make the coming hour o'erflow with joy,
And pleasure drown the brim.
O fair undress, best dress! it checks no vein,
But every flowing limb in pleasure drowns,
And heightens ease with grace.
O happiness! our being's end and aim!
Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name:
That something still which prompts the eternal sigh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die.
O Music! sphere-descended maid,
Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom's aid!
Oh, the gallant fisher's life!
It is the best of any;
'T is full of pleasure, void of strife,
And 't is beloved by many.
'T is a little thing
To give a cup of water; yet its draught
Of cool refreshment, drained by fevered lips,
May give a shock of pleasure to the frame
More exquisite than when nectarean juice
Renews the life of joy in happiest hours.
"I fly from pleasure," said the prince, "because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others."
All human race, from China to Peru,
Pleasure, howe'er disguis'd by art, pursue.
"I fly from pleasure," said the prince, "because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others."
There is a pleasure in poetic pains
Which only poets know.
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more.
And add to these retired Leisure,
That in trim gardens takes his pleasure.
Fly not yet; 't is just the hour
When pleasure, like the midnight flower
That scorns the eye of vulgar light,
Begins to bloom for sons of night
And maids who love the moon.
His very foot has music in 't
As he comes up the stairs.
Live while you live, the epicure would say,
And seize the pleasures of the present day;
Live while you live, the sacred preacher cries,
And give to God each moment as it flies.
Lord, in my views, let both united be:
I live in pleasure when I live to thee.
'T is better to be vile than vile esteem'd,
When not to be receives reproach of being;
And the just pleasure lost which is so deem'd,
Not by our feeling, but by others' seeing.
Pains of love be sweeter far
Than all other pleasures are.
A man of pleasure is a man of pains.
Who mix'd reason with pleasure, and wisdom with mirth:
If he had any faults, he has left us in doubt.
Never to blend our pleasure or our pride
With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels.
No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth.
No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en;
In brief, sir, study what you most affect.
Doubtless the pleasure is as great
Of being cheated as to cheat.
The pleasure of love is in loving. We are happier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire.
Our hopes, like towering falcons, aim
At objects in an airy height;
The little pleasure of the game
Is from afar to view the flight.
A thing of custom,—'t is no other;
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
Remote from man, with God he passed the days;
Prayer all his business, all his pleasure praise.
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words,—health, peace, and competence.
That though on pleasure she was bent,
She had a frugal mind.
To frown at pleasure, and to smile in pain.
His death eclipsed the gayety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure.
There is a pleasure sure
In being mad which none but madmen know.
Rich the treasure,
Sweet the pleasure,—
Sweet is pleasure after pain.
Men, some to business, some to pleasure take;
But every woman is at heart a rake.
Petition me no petitions, sir, to-day;
Let other hours be set apart for business.
To-day it is our pleasure to be drunk;
And this our queen shall be as drunk as we.
Lady Bab. Then you have an immense pleasure to come.
It is a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.
Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure;
Married in haste, we may repent at leisure.
No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety.
Epicurus laid down the doctrine that pleasure was the chief good.
A babe in a house is a well-spring of pleasure.
Live while you live, the epicure would say,
And seize the pleasures of the present day;
Live while you live, the sacred preacher cries,
And give to God each moment as it flies.
Lord, in my views, let both united be:
I live in pleasure when I live to thee.
Fain would I, but I dare not; I dare, and yet I may not;
I may, although I care not, for pleasure when I play not.
But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell!
Did ye not hear it?—No! 't was but the wind,
Or the car rattling o'er the stony street.
On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree,
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
I built my soul a lordly pleasure-house,
Wherein at ease for aye to dwell.
