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Quote by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“It's precisely in despair that you find the most intense pleasure, especially if you are already powerfully conscious of the hopelessness of your predicament.”

Quote by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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“I was still young and the whole world of beauty was opening before me, my own officious obstructions were often swept aside and, startled into self-forgetfulness, I again tasted Joy. ... One thing, however, I learned, which has since saved me from many popular confusions of mind. I came to know by experience that it is not a disguise of sexual desire. ... I repeatedly followed that path - to the end. And at the end one found pleasure; which immediately resulted in the discovery that pleasure (whether that pleasure or any other) was not what you had been looking for. No moral question was involved; I was at this time as nearly nonmoral on that subject as a human creature can be. The frustration did not consist in finding a "lower" pleasure instead of a "higher." It was the irrelevance of the conclusion that marred it. ... You might as well offer a mutton chop to a man who is dying of thirst as offer sexual pleasure to the desire I am speaking of. ... Joy is not a substitute for sex; sex is very often a substitute for Joy. I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for Joy.”

JoyPleasure
Book:Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life
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“According to Mederic-Louis-Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, mulâtresses affranchies circumvented laws requiring them to go barefoot by adorning themselves with flowers. They headed out to dances, at times matching their dress to that of “a good friend who is a confidante, the woman she cannot do without.” The emergence of sumptuary laws did not stop black femme presentation or intimacy.”

PleasureBeautyIntimacyFemininity
Book:Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World
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“Ne znam za vas, ali meni već dugo za rukom ne polazi da pronađem izvor žudnje. Ne, ne mislim na žudnju za bolom ili žudnju za mučenjem – one su me samo podstakle da se pitam odakle žudnja kao takva. Šta je to što u nama pali i razgoreva vatru? Zašto nam je toliko teško da pronađemo čime ćemo je ugasiti? I kad to otkrijemo – i kad je ugasimo – kako to da u pepelu uvek ima iskri koje i dalje tinjaju i koje će nas, kad-tad, ponovo zapaliti? Odričemo se svega, pa i sebe, samo da bismo nakratko utolili tu glupu glad, utažili tu upornu žeđ... Čemu to? Čemu žudnja? Ko bi to znao? I onda sam se probudio sa odgovorom. Žudnja je tu da bismo mogli da plačemo za zadovoljstvom i posredstvom zadovoljstva je dospela u svet... A zadovoljstvo je tu da ne bismo presvisli od bola i od patnje, čiji potpisi stoje na tapiji sveta.”

PainSufferingPleasureLustBdsmShibari
Book:Carstvo Tvoje
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“It's always been a choice-- every weapon a tool, every tool a weapon, every banana slip a joke, every song a scream of fear, pain, or pleasure, every flower a perfume, a ballet, a color splash grown from the soil of both harvest and destruction. It's always been a choice. Whether the direction you choose is foggy or clear. Where do you look? What do you look at? What do you hear?”

PainSongChoicesFearPleasureFocusWeaponsClarityChoiceFoggy Thoughts
Author:Shellen Lubin
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