THE QUEST FOR PLEASURE !

What we seek above all is what gives us satisfaction, entertainment, fun, pleasure and happiness. The quest for pleasure is the basic motive behind every action and behaviour pattern we adopt. "Everything that we do, we do because it gives us some sort of pleasure either indirect or direct(1)." Never the less, some people may doubt this statement because, as they might say, they get no pleasure from getting up for work, washing the dishes, tolerating the freezing cold winters, paying tax, dinning at their in law's, etc. Of course there are many things in life which we do not enjoy doing, but even these are motivated by the quest for pleasure. The explanation behind this apparant paradox where on the one hand everything we do is motivated by our desire for pleasure and yet on the other we also seem to carry out behaviour which is unpleasant a priori, is that there are two types of pleasures: direct and indirect.

The Wisdom of Pleasure, chapter 1