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Hedonism Quotes

Browse 92 quotes about Hedonism.

Hedonism Quotes

“If the fear of death were merely the fear of dying, it would be better dealt with by medicine than by argument. There is, or there might be, an art of dying well, of dying painlessly, willingly, and in season,—as in those noble partings which Attic gravestones depict,—especially if we were allowed, as Lucretius would allow us, to choose our own time. But the radical fear of death, I venture to think, is something quite different. It is the love of life. Epicurus, who feared life, seems to have missed here the primordial and colossal force he was fighting against. Had he perceived that force, he would have been obliged to meet it in a more radical way, by an enveloping movement, as it were, and an attack from the rear. The love of life is not something rational, or founded on experience of life. It is something antecedent and spontaneous. It is that Venus Genetrix which covers the earth with its flora and fauna. It teaches every animal to seek its food and its mate, and to protect its offspring; as also to resist or fly from all injury to the body, and most of all from threatened death. It is the original impulse by which good is discriminated from evil, and hope from fear. Nothing could be more futile, therefore, than to marshal arguments against that fear of death which is merely another name for the energy of life, or the tendency to self-preservation. Arguments involve premises, and these premises, in the given case, express some particular form of the love of life; whence it is impossible to conclude that death is in no degree evil and not at all to be feared. For what is most dreaded is not the agony of dying, nor yet the strange impossibility that when we do not exist we should suffer for not existing. What is dreaded is the defeat of a present will directed upon life and its various undertakings. Such a present will cannot be argued away, but it may be weakened by contradictions arising within it, by the irony of experience, or by ascetic discipline. To introduce ascetic discipline, to bring out the irony of experience, to expose the self-contradictions of the will, would be the true means of mitigating the love of life; and if the love of life were extinguished, the fear of death, like smoke rising from that fire, would have vanished also.”

LoveLifeDeathHateMaterialismAsceticismHedonism
Book:Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante And Goethe
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“By consequence I hold that no one ever did, or can do, anything for "society."... Comte invented the term altruism as an antonym for egoism, and it found its way at once into everyone's mouth, although it is utterly devoid of meaning, since it points to nothing that ever existed in mankind; This hybrid or rather this degenerate form of hedonism served powerfully to invest collectivism's principles with a specious moral sanction, and collectivists naturally made the most of it.”

WayMadeFormFoundTermCan DoMoralPrinciplesMankindMouthsConsequenceAltruismSanctionsEgoismCollectivismDegeneratesHybridHedonism
Author:Albert J. Nock
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“Unrestrained automobility, hedonism, individualism, and conspicuous consumption cannot be sustained because they take more than they give back. A spiritually impoverished world cannot be sustained because meaninglessness, anomie, and despair will corrode the desire to be sustained and the belief that humanity is worth sustaining. But these are the very things that distinguish the modern age from its predecessors, Genuine sustainability, in other words, will come not from superficial changes but from a deeper process akin to humankind growing up to a fuller stature.”

WorldGivingAgeDesireHumanityBeliefProcessGrowing UpGrowingModernDespairEnvironmentalDeeperGenuineIndividualismSustainabilityHumankindConsumptionSuperficialGiving BackStatureSustainingPredecessorsMeaninglessnessHedonismModern AgeConspicuous ConsumptionAnomie
Author:David W. Orr
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“While the Western society gives total freedom to the individuals to do whatever "consenting adults" please, which admittedly is better than having the government poke into your private life and your bedroom, like in Islamic countries, there are no moral compasses to tell what is right from wrong. The very notion of right and wrong has come under question. The motto is "if it feels good do it". Hedonism rules!”

IfsGivingFeelsCountryGovernmentIndividualMoralPleaseAdultsWesternNotionFeel GoodIslamicBedroomMottoCompassPrivate LifePokeHedonismMoral CompassWestern Society
Author:Ali Sina
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“They’re a nasty bunch of people. The Riot Club’s sole purpose is to celebrate wealth, elitism, hedonism, and excess - just random acts of destruction and chauvinism, which is interesting because our Prime Minister, our Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Mayor of London were are a part of this club.”

PeoplePurposeWealthInterestingDestructionClubsLondonBunchCelebrateMinistersPrimeExcessSoleNastyPrime MinisterRiotMayorsElitismHedonismChauvinism
Author:Max Irons
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“Many teachers of the Sixties generation said "We will steal your children", and they did. A significant part of America has converted to the ideas of the 1960s - hedonism, self-indulgence and consumerism. For half of all Americans today, the Woodstock culture of the Sixties is the culture they grew up with - their traditional culture. For them, Judeo-Christian culture is outside the mainstream now. The counter-culture has become the dominant culture, and the former culture a dissident culture - something that is far out, and 'extreme'.”

ChildrenSaidIdeasSelfTodayChristianAmericaCultureHalfTeacherGenerationsGrewGrew UpOur ChildrenExtremesSignificantStealingTraditionalFormerYour ChildrenMainstreamSixtyConsumerismDominant1960sIndulgenceSelf IndulgenceDissidentsHedonismWoodstockDominant CultureCounter Culture
Author:Pat Buchanan
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“We have been very effectively pacified by the pernicious ideology of a consumer society that is centered on the cult of the self - an undiluted hedonism and narcissism. That has become a very effective way to divert our attention while the country is reconfigured into a kind of neofeudalism, with a rapacious oligarchic elite and an anemic government that no longer is able to intercede on behalf of citizens but cravenly serves the interests of the oligarchy itself.”

WayKindHas BeensSelfCountryGovernmentAbleInterestAttentionCitizensIdeologyConsumersElitesNarcissismCultBehalfPerniciousOligarchyHedonism
Author:Chris Hedges
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“When consequentialist theories are developed in terms of an equally shallow psychology of the good - such as a crude form of hedonism - the results can sometimes strike sensible people as revolting and inhuman. People can be reduced to simple repositories of positive or negative sensory states, and their humanity is lost sight of entirely.”

PeopleSometimesStatesFormHumanityLostTermSimpleResultsPsychologyTheoryNegativeSightStrikesSensibleShallowCrudeSensoryInhumanHedonism
Author:Allen W. Wood
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“Critics of Consequentialism have often assumed that hedonism (or preference-satisfaction) must be the theory of the good, that the deontic principle must be maximizing, and that the principle should be applied to individual acts. Indeed, this version is often called "classical utilitarianism" and attributed to Bentham and sometimes even to Mill. Rather than a "classical" view it is a recent construction foisted on to the tradition.”

ShouldSometimesIndividualViewsPrinciplesTheoryTraditionCriticsSatisfactionVersionsConstructionPreferenceMillsHedonismUtilitarianismMaximizingConsequentialism
Author:Dale Jamieson
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“The discovery of the good taste of bad taste can be very liberating. The man who insists on high and serious pleasures is depriving himself of pleasure; he continually restricts what he can enjoy; in the constant exercise of his good taste he will eventually price himself out of the market, so to speak. Here Camp taste supervenes upon good taste as a daring and witty hedonism. It makes the man of good taste cheerful, where before he ran the risk of being chronically frustrated. It is good for the digestion.”

MenSpeakEnjoyPleasureRiskHe ManSeriousExerciseTasteDiscoveryConstantWittyRanCampsDaringFrustratedCheerfulLiberatingGood TasteDigestionBad TasteHedonismDepriving
Author:Susan Sontag
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“My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.”

IfsNeedsDrinkSacredDrinkingAlcoholBeerMealsSmokingCigaretteRulesDrunkennessCigarIntervalsDrinking AlcoholRiteFunny DrinkingBeer DrinkingFunny AlcoholAlcohol DrinkingDrinking FunnyHedonismRules Of LifeAlcohol And LifeFunny SarcasticSmoking CigarettesSmoking CigarsEating And DrinkingSmoking And DrinkingHedonisticShots DrinkingBeing DrunkHedonistCigarettes And Alcohol
Author:Winston Churchill
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“I decided that life rationally considered seemed pointless and futile, but it is still interesting in a variety of ways, including the study of science. So why not carry on, following the path of scientific hedonism? Besides, I did not have the courage for the more rational procedure of suicide.”

WayStillsScienceDecisionInterestingStudyPathDecidedAccountsSuicideIncludingFollowingRationalVarietyWhy NotProceduresPointlessHedonism
Book:Life of a Scientist: An Autobiographical Account of the Development of Molecular Orbital Theory
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“The present dominant values (xenophilia, cosmopolitanism, narcissistic individualism, humanitarianism, bourgeois economism, hedonism, homophilia, permissivenes, etc.) are actually anti-values - values of devirilising weakness, since they deplete a civilization's vital energies and weaken its defensive or affirmative capacities.”

ValuesEnergyCivilizationWeaknessCapacityEtcIndividualismDominantHumanitarianismNarcissisticBourgeoisAffirmativeHedonismCosmopolitanism
Author:Guillaume Faye
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“Traditional hedonism...was based on the direct experience of pleasure: wine, women and song; sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll; or whatever the local variant. The problem, from a capitalist perspective, is that there are inherent limits to all this. People become sated, bored...Modern self-illusory hedonism solves this dilemma because here, what one is really consuming are fantasies and day-dreams about what having a certain product would be like.”

PeopleSelfProblemDreamWould BeCertainSongSexPleasureFantasyModernRocksProductsPerspectiveDrugLimitsDirectWineSolveLocalsTraditionalBoredCapitalistRock N RollInherentConsumingDilemmaIllusoryHedonismSatedSex Drugs
Author:David Graeber
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“Never before has the seductive market way of life held such sway in nearly every sphere of American life. This marketing way of life promotes addictions to stimulation and obsessions with comfort and convenience ... centered primarily around bodily pleasures and status rankings. ... The common denominator is a rugged and ragged individualism and rapacious hedonism in quest of a perennial "high" in body and mind.”

WayMindBodyBlackPleasureCommonComfortAddictionMarketingObsessionSpheresIndividualismQuestsMind And BodyBlack HistoryConvenienceSeductiveAmerican LifeStimulationCommon DenominatorRuggedRankingRaggedHedonism
Author:Cornel West
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“We live in a profoundly nonintellectual culture, made all the worse by a passive hedonism abetted by the spread of wealth and its dissipation into countless electronic devices that impart the latest in entertainment and supposed information - all in short (and loud) doses of "easy listening".”

MadeCultureEasyWealthInformationListeningEntertainmentSpreadLoudDevicesPassiveDoseImpartHedonismDissipationElectronic Devices
Book:Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History
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