Those who are devoted to amusements; who love the society of those who love pleasure, have an aversion to religious exercises.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
In the context of worship, amusement is a waste of time and a waste of life, and therefore a form of sin.
I am persuaded that the chief reason why we do not enjoy religion is that we do not try to enjoy it.
Amusement is a way of boredom-avoidance through external stimulation that fails to exercise our minds. It's mere diversion.
'Amusement' is appealing because we don't have to think; it spares us the fear and anxiety that might otherwise prey on our thoughts.
Living big and joyful and content is almost always the result of our finding satisfaction in life's ordinary day-to-day pleasures. And God must be fond of them, too, for He made so many of them for us to enjoy.
Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.
Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.
Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.
None so little enjoy themselves, and are such burdens to themselves, as those who have nothing to do. Only the active have the true relish of life.
Our sages of blessed memory have said that we must not enjoy any pleasure in this world without reciting a blessing.