We like the chase better than the quarry.... And those who philosophize on the matter, and who think men unreasonable for spending... a whole day in chasing a hare which they would not have bought, scarce know our nature. The hare in itself would not screen us from the sight of death and calamities; but the chase, which turns away our attention from these, does screen us.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The only thing which consoles for our miseries is diversion, and yet this is the greatest of our miseries. For it is this which pr...incipally hinders us from reflecting upon ourselves and which makes us imperceptibly ruin ourselves.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Thus passes away all man's life. Men seek rest in a struggle against difficulties; and when they have conquered these, rest become...s insufferable. For we think either of the misfortunes we have or of those that threaten us.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Without [diversion] we would be in a state of weariness, and this weariness would spur us on to seek a more solid means of escapin...g from it. But diversion amuses us, and leads us unconsciously to death.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory. We love to see animals fighting, not the victor raving over the vanquished.... It ...is the same in gambling, and the same in the search for truth.... We never seek things for themselves--what we seek is the very seeking of things.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
So wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness from the peculiar state of his disposition; and so fri...volous is he that, though full of a thousand causes for weariness, the least thing, such as playing billiards or hitting a ball, is sufficient to amuse him.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »