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.
It's bad taste to be wise all the time, like being at a perpetual funeral.
I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom: As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
The rare individuals who unselfishly try to serve others have an enormous advantage-they have little competition.
Zen is not interested in high-flown statements; it wants its pupil to bite his apple and not discuss it.
Errors, to be dangerous, must have a great deal of truth mingled with them. It is only from this alliance that they can ever obtain an extensive circulation.
Never be so faithful to your plan that you are unwilling to consider the unexpected. Never be so faithful to your plan that you are unwilling to entertain the improbable opportunity that comes looking for you.
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