There is an element of autobiography in all fiction in that pain or distress, or pleasure, is based on the author's own. But in my case that is as far as it goes.

The Puritan hated bear-baiting not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators

In pain you can be more meditative than in pleasure.”

It is always by way of pain one arrives at pleasure.

The fact is what is seen,what is proven not what is believed

...when we say we're looking for a spiritual adviser, we're really looking for someone to tell us what to do with our bodies. Decisions of the flesh. We forget to learn from pleasure as well as pain.