Pleasure is not the goal.

Pleasure is not the goal.

Pleasure is not the goal of a man, but knowledge. Pleasure and happiness come to an end. It is a mistake to suppose that pleasure a goal. The cause of all the miseries we have in the world is that men foolishly think pleasure to be the ideal to strive for. After a time man finds it is not happiness, but knowledge towards which he is going, and that both pleasure and pain are great teachers, and that he learns as much from evil as from good.
...Good and evil have an equal share in moulding character, and in some instances misery is a great teacher than happiness. In studying the great characters the world has produced, I dare say, in the vast majority of cases, it would be found that it was misery that taught more than happiness, it was poverty that taught more than wealth, it was blows that brought out their inner fire more than praise.
Sense-Happiness is not the goal of humanity. Wisdom(Jnana) is the goal of all life. We find that man enjoys his intellect more than an animal enjoys its senses; and we see that man enjoys his spiritual nature even more than rational nature. So the highest wisdom must be this spiritual knowledge. With this knowledge will come bliss. All these things of the world are but the shadows, manifestations in the third or fourth degree of the real knowledge and bliss.
Only the fools rush after sense-enjoyments. It is easy to live in the senses. It is easier to run in the old groove, eating and drinking; but what these modern philosophers want to tell you is to take these comfortable ideas and put the stamp of religion on them. Such a doctorine is dangerous. Death lies in the senses. Life on the plane of spirit is the only life, life on any other plane is mere death; the whole of this life can be only described a a gymnasium. We must go beyond it to enjoy real life.