Enjoyment

Enjoyment refers to the condition of having delight or pleasure in certain activities or experiences , especially those which produce enduring joy or happiness.

Quotes

• All acts suppose certain dispositions, and habits of mind and heart, which may be in themselves states of enjoyment or of wretchedness, and which must be fruitful in other consequences besides those particular acts.
  • John Stuart Mill, Remarks on Bentham's Philosophy (1833).

• For Solomon, he lived at ease, and full
  Of honour, wealth, high fare, aimed not beyond
  Higher design than to enjoy his state.
  • John Milton, Paradise Regained (1671), Book II, line 201.

• Though throned in highest bliss
  Equal to God, and equally enjoying
  God-like fruition.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book III, line 305.

• Who can enjoy alone?
  Or all enjoying what contentment find?
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book VIII, line 365.

• Whether with Reason, or with Instinct blest,
  Know, all enjoy that pow'r which suits them best.
  • Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man (1733-34), Epistle III, line 79.

• Je l'ai toujours dit et senti, la véritable jouissance ne se décrit point.
  • I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described.
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions (1770, published 1782), VIII.

• The ungodly ... reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves,...

we were born by mere chance,

and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been, ...

Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist,

and make use of the creation to the full as in youth.

Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfumes,

and let no flower of spring pass us by.

Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.

Let none of us fail to share in our revelry;

everywhere let us leave signs of enjoyment,

because this is our portion, and this our lot. ...

Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, ...

for God created us for incorruption,

and made us in the image of his own eternity.

• Wisdom of Solomon 2:1-23 NRSV.

• The modalities of awakened doing are acceptance, enjoyment, and enthusiasm. Each one represents a certain vibrational frequency of consciousness. You need to be vigilant to make sure that one of them operates whenever you are engaged in doing anything at all – from the most simple task to the most complex. If you are not in the state of either acceptance, enjoyment, or enthusiasm, look closely and you will find that you are creating suffering for yourself and others.
  • Eckhart Tolle in A New Earth:Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, (2005) Chapter 10

• The peace that comes with surrendered action turns to a sense of aliveness when you actually enjoy what you are doing. Enjoyment is the second modality of awakened doing. On the new earth, enjoyment will replace wanting as the motivating power behind people's actions. Wanting arises from the ego's delusion that you are a separate fragment that is disconnected from the power that lies behind all creation. Through enjoyment, you link into that universal creative power itself.
  When you make the present moment, instead of past and future, the focal point of your life, your ability to enjoy what you do – and with it the quality of your life – increases dramatically. Joy is the dynamic aspect of Being. When the creative power of the universe becomes conscious of itself, it manifests as joy. You don't have to wait for something “meaningful” to come into your life so that you can finally enjoy what you do. There is more meaning in joy than you will ever need. The “waiting to start living” syndrome is one of the most common delusions of the unconscious state.
  • Eckhart Tolle in A New Earth:Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, (2005) Chapter 10

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 225-26.

• Heaven forbids, it is true, certain gratifications, but there are ways and means of compounding such matters.
  • Molière, Tartuffe (1664), Act IV, scene 5.

• Sleep, riches, and health, to be truly enjoyed, must be interrupted.
  • Jean Paul Richter, Flour, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces, Chapter VIII.

• You were made for enjoyment, and the world was filled with things which you will enjoy, unless you are too proud to be pleased by them, or too grasping to care for what you cannot turn to other account than mere delight.
  • John Ruskin, Stones of Venice, Volume I, Chapter II.

• Res severa est verum gaudium
  • A thing seriously pursued affords true enjoyment.
  • Seneca the Younger, Epistles, XXIII. 3. 4.

• Quam vellem longas tecum requiescere noctes,
  Et tecum longos pervigilare dies.
  • How could I, blest with thee, long nights employ;
    And how with thee the longest day enjoy!
  • Tibullus, Carmina, III. 6. 53.

See also

• Pleasure