Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.3 Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in The Antichrist (1895) and The Will to Power (1901):

What is good Everything that heightens the feeling of power in man the will to power power itself. What is bad Everything that is born of weakness. What is happiness The feeling that power increases that a resistance is overcome.4

... it is significantly enlightening to substitute for the individual happiness (for which every living being is supposed to strive) power ... joy is only a symptom of the feeling of attained power ... (one does not strive for joy ... joy accompanies; joy does not move)5 Psychologist Alfred Adler in The Neurotic Constitution (1912):

Nietzsche's "will to power" and "will to seem" embrace many of our views which again resemble in some respects the views of Fr and the older writers according to whom the sensation of pleasure originates in a feeling of power that of pain in a feeling of feebleness.6 Poet and satirist Edward Young: The love of praise howe'er concealed by art Reigns more or less supreme in every heart; The Proud to gain it toils on toils endure; The modest shun it but to make it sure!7 Politician William Bennett: "Happiness is like a cat If you try to coax it or call it it will avoid you; it will never come. But if you pay no attention to it and go about your business you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap." Novelist Joo Guimares Rosa: "Happiness is found only in little moments of inattention."8 Example Suppose Paul likes to collect stamps. According to most models of behavior including not only utilitarianism but most economic psychological and social conceptions of behavior it is believed that Paul likes collecting stamps because he gets pleasure from collecting stamps. Stamp collecting is an avenue towards acquiring pleasure. However if you tell Paul this he will likely disagree. He does get pleasure from collecting stamps but this is not the process that explains why he collects stamps. It is not as though he says I must collect stamps so I Paul can obtain pleasure. Collecting stamps is not just a means toward pleasure. He just likes collecting stamps. This paradox is often spun around backwards to illustrate that pleasure and happiness cannot be reverse-engineered. If for example you heard that collecting stamps was very pleasurable and began a stamp collection as a means towards this happiness it would inevitably be in vain. To achieve happiness you must not seek happiness directly you must strangely motivate yourself towards things unrelated to happiness like the collection of stamps. The hedonistic paradox would probably mean that if one sets the goal to please oneself too highly then the mechanism would in fact jam itself. Suggested explanations Happiness is often imprecisely equated with pleasure. If for whatever reason one does equate happiness with pleasure then the paradox of hedonism arises. When one aims solely towards pleasure itself one's aim is frustrated. Henry Sidgwick comments on such frustration after a discussion of self-love in the above-mentioned work: "I should not however infer from this that the pursuit of pleasure is necessarily self-defeating and futile; but merely that the principle of Egoistic Hedonism when applied with a due knowledge of the laws of human nature is practically self-limiting; i.e. that a rational method of attaining the end at which it aims requires that we should to some extent put it out of sight and not directly aim at it."9 While not addressing the paradox directly Aristotle commented on the futility of pursuing pleasure. Human beings are actors whose endeavors bring about consequences and among these is pleasure. Aristotle then argues as follows: "How then is it that no one is continuously pleased Is it that we grow weary Certainly all human things are incapable of continuous activity. Therefore pleasure also is not continuous; for it accompanies activity."10 Sooner or later finite beings will be unable to acquire and expend the resources necessary to maintain their sole goal of pleasure; thus they find themselves in the company of misery. On the other hand David Pearce argues in his treatise The Hedonistic Imperative that humans might be able to use genetic engineering nanotechnology and neuroscience to eliminate suffering in all sentient life. See also Hedonic treadmill References John Stuart Mill Autobiography in The Harvard Classics Vol. 25 Charles Eliot Norton ed. (New York: P. F. Collier & Son Company 1909 (p. 94) Viktor Frankl. Man's Search for Meaning. Sren Kierkegaard. Either/Or. Diapsalmata The Antichrist 2 The Will to Power 688 Adler Alfred (1912). The Neurotic Constitution. New York: Moffat Yard and Company. pp. ix. http://www.archive.org/details/neuroticconstitu00adle.  Geoffrey Brennan. The Esteem Engine: A Resource for Institutional Design Rosa Guimares. Tutamia Terceiras Estrias (8.a ed.). Rio de Janeiro: Ed. Nova Fronteira 2001 p. 60. Henry Sidgwick. The Methods of Ethics. BookSurge Publishing (1 Mar 2001) (p. 3) Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics (Written 350 B.C.E)Book X page 4 Further reading Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics 1175 3-6 in The Basic Works of Aristotle Richard McKeon ed. (New York: Random House 1941) John Stuart Mill Autobiography in The Harvard Classics Vol. 25 Charles Eliot Norton ed. (New York: P. F. Collier & Son Company 1909) Henry Sidgwick The Methods of Ethics (London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd. 1874/1963)