--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Men may thus have several sorts of…" description: "\"“Men may thus have several sorts of pleasures. The true pleasure is that for which they give up another.”\" — Marcel Proust" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/124/marcel-proust-114_pleasure_men-may-thus-have-several-sorts-of-pleas_2896981.jpg" --- # Men may thus have several sorts of pleasures. The true… ![“Men may thus have several sorts of pleasures. The true pleasure is that for which they give up another.” quote by Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/124/marcel-proust-114_pleasure_men-may-thus-have-several-sorts-of-pleas_2896981.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/124/marcel-proust-114_pleasure_men-may-thus-have-several-sorts-of-pleas_2896981.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/124/marcel-proust-114_pleasure_men-may-thus-have-several-sorts-of-pleas_2896981.jpg) > ““Men may thus have several sorts of pleasures. The true pleasure is that for which they give up another.”” [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. States that true pleasure comes from self‑sacrifice for others, not personal indulgence. **In simple terms:** Real joy is found in giving up something for another. Key Takeaway Seek fulfillment through selfless acts. Themes philosophy ethics pleasure Mood thoughtful inspirational Type philosophical ethical When to use this quote - volunteering - relationship building - charity Key Concepts self‑sacrifice altruism Questions to Reflect On - What can you give up for others? - How does self‑sacrifice affect personal well‑being? A Different Perspective Self‑sacrifice may lead to burnout if unbalanced. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Pleasure](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pleasure/) [Pleasures](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pleasures/) ## Related quotes > [The truth is that men can have several sorts of pleasure. The true pleasure is the one for which they abandon the other.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/the-truth-is-that-men-can-have-several-sorts-of-pleasure-the-true/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“True pleasure is the pleasure of sharing.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antoine-de-saint-exup-ry/true-pleasure-is-the-pleasure-of-sharing/) [Antoine de Saint-Exupéry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antoine-de-saint-exup-ry/) > [“Pleasure. This is what true pleasure feels like. It's not just the softness of a kiss. It's not just the delicate touch of hands…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/callie-hart/pleasure-this-is-what-true-pleasure-feels-like-it-s-not-just-the/) [Callie Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/callie-hart/) > [All sensations are true; pleasure is our natural goal.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/epicurus/all-sensations-are-true-pleasure-is-our-natural-goal/) [Epicurus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/epicurus/) > [Everything people say about grandparenthood is true - it is pleasure without responsibility. It is unquestioned love.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-eyre/everything-people-say-about-grandparenthood-is-true-it-is-pleasure/) [Richard Eyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-eyre/) > [The true pleasure of life is to live with your inferiors.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-makepeace-thackeray/the-true-pleasure-of-life-is-to-live-with-your-inferiors/) [William Makepeace Thackeray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-makepeace-thackeray/) > [Do you think it takes true pain to experience true pleasure?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gena-showalter/do-you-think-it-takes-true-pain-to-experience-true-pleasure/) [Gena Showalter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gena-showalter/) > [And as for Pleasure, there is little in this World that is true and sincere, besides the Pleasure of doing our Duty, and of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-tillotson/and-as-for-pleasure-there-is-little-in-this-world-that-is-true-and/) [John Tillotson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-tillotson/) > [“But the second kind seek out the women who love women, who can procure a young man for them and add to the pleasure…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/but-the-second-kind-seek-out-the-women-who-love-women-who-can-procure/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“Obscurely awaited, immanent and concealed, it rouses to such a paroxysm, at the moment when at last it makes itself felt, those other pleasures…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/obscurely-awaited-immanent-and-concealed-it-rouses-to-such-a-paroxysm/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [At that time, he was satisfying a sensual curiosity by experiencing the pleasures of people who live for love. He had believed he could…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/at-that-time-he-was-satisfying-a-sensual-curiosity-by-experiencing/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [Pleasures are like photographs: in the presence of the person we love, we take only negatives, which we develop later, at home, when we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/pleasures-are-like-photographs-in-the-presence-of-the-person-we-love/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [The greatest of all pleasures is the pleasure of learning.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aristotle/the-greatest-of-all-pleasures-is-the-pleasure-of-learning/) [Aristotle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aristotle/) > [For let me tell you, that the more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/plato/for-let-me-tell-you-that-the-more-the-pleasures-of-the-body-fade-away/) [Plato](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/plato/) > [The pleasures and the cares of the luckiest ambition, even of limitless power, are nothing next to the intimate happiness that tenderness and love…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stendhal/the-pleasures-and-the-cares-of-the-luckiest-ambition-even-of/) [Stendhal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stendhal/) ## More by Marcel Proust > [“machinery' of life at Versailles; and was able, too, to persuade herself that her silence, a shade of good humour or of arrogance on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/machinery-of-life-at-versailles-and-was-able-too-to-persuade-herself/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [ “For her \[Françoise\], wealth was like a necessary condition without which virtue would lack both merit and charm. She made so little distinction between… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/for-her-fran-oise-wealth-was-like-a-necessary-condition-without-which/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [Knowing does not always allow us to prevent, but at least the things that we know, we hold them, if not in our hands,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/knowing-does-not-always-allow-us-to-prevent-but-at-least-the-things/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [Death is in truth an illness from which we recover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/death-is-in-truth-an-illness-from-which-we-recover/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [The bonds that unite another person to our self exist only in our mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/the-bonds-that-unite-another-person-to-our-self-exist-only-in-our-mind/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [...a writer's works, like the water in an artesian well, mount to a height which is in proportion to the depth to which suffering…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/a-writer-s-works-like-the-water-in-an-artesian-well-mount-to-a-height/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“Then from those profound slumbers we awake in a dawn, not knowing who we are, being nobody, newly born, ready for anything, the brain…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/then-from-those-profound-slumbers-we-awake-in-a-dawn-not-knowing-who/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“Art extracted from the most familiar reality does indeed exist and its domain is perhaps the largest of any.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/art-extracted-from-the-most-familiar-reality-does-indeed-exist-and/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [I find very reasonable the Celtic belief that the souls of our dearly departed are trapped in some inferior being, in an animal, aplant,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/i-find-very-reasonable-the-celtic-belief-that-the-souls-of-our-dearly/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“When you heard anyone in the middle of a talk which was being deliberately kept off the Affair announce furtively some piece of political…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/when-you-heard-anyone-in-the-middle-of-a-talk-which-was-being/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“We betroth ourselves by proxy, and then feel obliged to marry the intermediary.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/we-betroth-ourselves-by-proxy-and-then-feel-obliged-to-marry-the/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“But the old lady on the contrary, far from justifying her daughter’s fears, felt every time someone of her own age “disappeared” that she…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/but-the-old-lady-on-the-contrary-far-from-justifying-her-daughter-s/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [Often it is just lack of imagination that keeps a man from suffering very much.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/often-it-is-just-lack-of-imagination-that-keeps-a-man-from-suffering/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“When we are nice to others, we generally lose all claim to their respect.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/when-we-are-nice-to-others-we-generally-lose-all-claim-to-their/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“Nobility is often no more than the inner aspect which our egotistical feelings assume when we have not yet named and classified them.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/nobility-is-often-no-more-than-the-inner-aspect-which-our-egotistical/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) [Explore all 1,113 Marcel Proust quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) ## More Pleasure quotes > [Her dignity consists in being unknown to the world; her glory is in the esteem of her husband; her pleasures in the happiness of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-jacques-rousseau/her-dignity-consists-in-being-unknown-to-the-world-her-glory-is-in/) [Jean-Jacques Rousseau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-jacques-rousseau/) > [Jonah Lehrer is one of the most talented explainers of science that we’ve got. What a pleasure it is to follow his investigation of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/jonah-lehrer-is-one-of-the-most-talented-explainers-of-science-that/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [“If any woman opens her legs for you, don't feel so lucky to be fed with nonsense, she has been a bitch for a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-bassey-johnson/if-any-woman-opens-her-legs-for-you-don-t-feel-so-lucky-to-be-fed/) [Michael Bassey Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-bassey-johnson/) > [The work, the work, the work. This is what the business is all about. This is the fun, the glory, the pleasure. It's the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/phil-dusenberry/the-work-the-work-the-work-this-is-what-the-business-is-all-about/) [Phil Dusenberry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/phil-dusenberry/) > [Man has an almost infinite capacity for taking things and people for granted and thereby missing out on the pleasure of being grateful that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aldous-huxley/man-has-an-almost-infinite-capacity-for-taking-things-and-people-for/) [Aldous Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aldous-huxley/) > [No verse can give pleasure for long, nor last, that is written by drinkers of water.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/horace/no-verse-can-give-pleasure-for-long-nor-last-that-is-written-by/) [Horace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/horace/) > [Exercise teaches you the pleasure of discipline.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-fonda/exercise-teaches-you-the-pleasure-of-discipline/) [Jane Fonda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-fonda/) > [“Joy is like sex – it begins and ends. I want pleasure. I want to be contended, but happiness? I no longer fall into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/joy-is-like-sex-it-begins-and-ends-i-want-pleasure-i-want-to-be/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [Many years ago I was fishing, and as I was reeling in the poor fish, I realised, 'I am killing him - all for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-mccartney/many-years-ago-i-was-fishing-and-as-i-was-reeling-in-the-poor-fish-i/) [Paul McCartney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-mccartney/) > [Cultivate the habit of thinking ahead, and of anticipating the necessary and immediate consequences of all your actions… Likewise in your pleasures, ask yourself…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lord-chesterfield/cultivate-the-habit-of-thinking-ahead-and-of-anticipating-the/) [Lord Chesterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lord-chesterfield/) > [I'm not interested in making a diagnostic novel or a concern. I'm 100 percent committed in fiction to the pleasure principle - that's what…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-amis/i-m-not-interested-in-making-a-diagnostic-novel-or-a-concern-i-m-100/) [Martin Amis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-amis/) > [My identity shifted when I got into # recovery . That's who I am now, and it actually gives me greater pleasure to have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eric-clapton/my-identity-shifted-when-i-got-into-recovery-that-s-who-i-am-now-and/) [Eric Clapton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eric-clapton/) > [“He made me feel like I was nothing but a set of warm holes for him to pleasure himself with. And he made me…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabella-starling/he-made-me-feel-like-i-was-nothing-but-a-set-of-warm-holes-for-him-to/) [Isabella Starling](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabella-starling/) > [No state of society or laws can render men so much alike but that education, fortune, and tastes will interpose some differences between them;…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexis-de-tocqueville/no-state-of-society-or-laws-can-render-men-so-much-alike-but-that/) [Alexis de Tocqueville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexis-de-tocqueville/) > [In Britain, the press want to kill a show by revealing what's coming up and spoiling the pleasure.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hugh-bonneville/in-britain-the-press-want-to-kill-a-show-by-revealing-what-s-coming/) [Hugh Bonneville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hugh-bonneville/) [Browse all 7,692 Pleasure quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pleasure/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Men may thus have several sorts of pleasures. The true pleasure is that for which they give up another.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marcel Proust" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/men-may-thus-have-several-sorts-of-pleasures-the-true-pleasure-is/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Pleasure" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/men-may-thus-have-several-sorts-of-pleasures-the-true-pleasure-is/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/124/marcel-proust-114_pleasure_men-may-thus-have-several-sorts-of-pleas_2896981.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/124/marcel-proust-114_pleasure_men-may-thus-have-several-sorts-of-pleas_2896981.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/124/marcel-proust-114_pleasure_men-may-thus-have-several-sorts-of-pleas_2896981.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Men may thus have several sorts of pleasures. The true pleasure is that for which they give up another.” — Marcel Proust", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Marcel Proust", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“Men may thus have several sorts...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/men-may-thus-have-several-sorts-of-pleasures-the-true-pleasure-is/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/men-may-thus-have-several-sorts-of-pleasures-the-true-pleasure-is/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```