The greatest obstacle to pleasure is not pain; it is delusion.
Interpretation
Delusion prevents us from experiencing true pleasure, more than any pain could.
This quote by Stephen Greenblatt emphasizes that the ability to enjoy life and find happiness is often hindered not by external hardships or pain, but rather by our misconceptions and misunderstandings—our delusions. It suggests that recognizing and confronting these delusions is essential for achieving true pleasure and satisfaction in life.
In practice
This quote could be used in a talk about mental health to illustrate how self-deception prevents happiness.
I've been at this for 40 years. And, as an academic, I've been content with relatively small audiences, with the thought that the audience I long for will find its way eventually to what I have written, provided that what I have written is good enough.
What I wanted to do was to get that sense of being in touch with this lost world while holding onto what draws readers and audiences there in the first place.
What matters here are the works - finally without them his life would be uninteresting. What matters, that is, are the astonishing things that he left behind. If we can get the life in relation to the works, then it can take off.
The exercise of reason is not available only to specialists; it is accessible to everyone.
Compared to the unleashed forces of warfare and of faith, Mount Vesuvius was kinder to the legacy of antiquity.
I believe in broken, fractured, complicated narratives, but I believe in narratives as a vehicle for truth, not simply as a form of entertainment, though I love entertainment, but also a way of conveying what needs to be conveyed about the works that I care about.
Simply put, you believer that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy.
If you so choose, every mistake can lead to greater understanding and effectiveness. If you so choose, every frustration can help you to be more patient and more persistent.
It is not fit that every man should travel; it makes a wise man better, and a fool worse.
He is the best man who, when making his plans, fears and reflects on everything that can happen to him, but in the moment of action is bold.
In Asian languages, the word for mind and the word for heart are same. So if you’re not hearing mindfulness in some deep way as heartfulness, you’re not really understanding it. Compassion and kindness towards oneself are intrinsically woven into it. You could think of mindfulness as wise and affectionate attention.
When you combine the ability to express your unique talent with service to humanity, then you make full use of The Law of Dharma.
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