the Finite and the Infinite.

"[king solomon] said to [himself], 'come now, i will test you with pleasure. so enjoy yourself.' and behold, it too was futility. i said of laughter, 'it is madness,' and of pleasure, 'what does it accomplish?' i explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine while my mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly, until i could see what good there is for the sons of men to do under heaven the few years of their lives. i enlarged my works: i built houses for myself, i planted vineyards for myself; i made gardens and parks for myself and i planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. i bought male and female slaves and i had homeborn slaves. also i possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in jerusalem. also, i collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. i provided for myself male and female singers and the pleasures of men - concubines. then i became great and increased more than all who preceded me in jerusalem. my wisdom also stood by me. all that my eyes desired i did not refuse them. i did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of al my labor and this was my reward for all my labor. thus i considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which i had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun."

- ecclesiastes 2:1-11

"if you asked twenty men today what they thought the highest of the virtue, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. but if you asked almost any of the great christians of old he would have replied, Love. you see what has happened? a negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. the negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it not the suggestion primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. i do not think this is the christian ideal of Love. the new testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. we are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. if there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, i submit that this notion has crept in from kant and the stoics and is no part of the christian faith. indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. we are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. we are far too easily pleased."

- the weight of glory, c.s. lewis