If those who are the enemies of innocent amusements had the direction of the world, they would take away the spring, and youth, the former from the year, the latter from human life. – Honore de Balzac
Pleasure is continually disappointed, reduced, deflated, in favor of strong, noble values: Truth, Death, Progress, Struggle, Joy, etc. Its victorious rival is Desire: we are always being told about Desire, never about Pleasure. – Roland Barthes
That was always the difference between Muhammad Ali and the rest of us. He came, he saw, and if he didnt entirely conquer — he came as close as anybody we are likely to see in the lifetime of this doomed generation. – Hunter S. Thompson
