ALAN WATTS

Understandably, pain, pleasure, and loneliness can make us unhappy, and pleasures can provide us with momentary happiness.

A certain dissatisfaction, want and frustration, is, strangely enough, providing a background towards being happy. Fulfillment of all desires, and having not...

All human behavior follows the Pain-Pleasure Principle—we act to gain pleasure or avoid pain. What controls behavior is not actual feelings but what we anticipate will lead to those feelings.

Key distinctions for lasting change:

• Short-term vs. lo...

• Some people find pleasure in watching something painful, finding that the pleasure is outweighing the pain.
• Others can feel a sort of catharsis, a liberation from their negative emotions, with the pain of others facilitating a kind of relief from their own traumas.
• Many fi...