“Drawing is one of those things which sit on the uneasy bending line between instinct and instruction, where seeming perversity eventually trumps pleasure as the card players and the kibitzers interact and new thrills are sought.” LinesPleasurePlayerRiskTrumpInstinctDrawingCardsInstructionSeemingUneasyBendingPerversity Author:Adam Gopnik
“In my opinion we learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men's behaviour. We study it, as we listen to music or read poetry, for pleasure, not for instruction.” MenPleasureOpinionStudyInfiniteVarietyInstructionBehaviourListening To Music Author:A. J. P. Taylor
“Music may appeal to crude and coarse feelings or to refined and noble ones; and in so far as it does the latter it awakens the higher nature and works an effect, though but a transitory effect, of a beneficial kind. But the primary purpose of music is neither instruction nor culture but pleasure; and this is an all-sufficient purpose.” KindMayDoeFeelingsPurposeCulturePleasureEffectsHigherMusic IsNoblePrimariesAppealsSufficientLatterInstructionBeneficialRefinedCrudeTransitoryCoarse Book:Works Source: Works
“Some people read for instruction, which is praiseworthy, and some for pleasure, which is innocent, but not a few read from habit, and I suppose that this is neither innocent or praiseworthy. Of that lamentable company am I. Conversation after a time bores me, games tire me and my own thoughts, which we are told are the unfailing resource of a sensible man, have a tendency to run dry. Then I fly to my book as the opium-smoker to his pipe.” PeopleMenBookRunningGamesMy OwnPleasureCompanyHabitConversationResourcesInnocentTendenciesDrySensibleInstructionBoresTirePipeOpiumSmokersPraiseworthy Book:Collected Short Stories Source: Collected Short Stories
“Poesy is a beauteous damsel, chaste, honourable, discreet, witty, retired, and who keeps herself within the limits of propriety. She is a friend of solitude; fountains entertain her, meadows console her, woods free her from ennui, flowers delight her; in short, she gives pleasure and instruction to all with whom she communicates.” GivingPleasureFlowerSolitudeLimitsDelightWittyCommunicateWoodsInstructionFountainRetiredMeadowsConsoleProprietyChasteEnnuiDiscreet Author:Miguel de Cervantes