"In all worldly things that a man pursues with the greatest eagerness he finds not half the pleasure in the possession that he proposed to himself in the expectation"
About this Quote
Ambition, South suggests, is a master illusionist: it sells us a trailer better than the movie. The line is built on a cold, almost mathematical disappointment - “not half the pleasure” - a phrasing that makes desire sound like a bad bargain rather than a tragic romance. That’s deliberate. As a 17th-century Anglican clergyman preaching in a culture newly energized by commerce, empire, and status competition, South isn’t simply warning against greed; he’s diagnosing a psychological mechanism that keeps the world spinning.
The intent is pastoral but unsentimental. South aims at the subtle self-deception embedded in “expectation”: we don’t merely want things, we pre-enjoy them in imagination, inflating their capacity to satisfy. Possession can only be literal, finite, and quickly normalized; expectation is unlimited and can be edited to taste. The subtext is a theological critique of misplaced ends. If you hitch your happiness to “worldly things,” you’re not just morally off-course; you’re strategically foolish, investing your soul in an asset designed to depreciate the moment it’s acquired.
What makes the sentence work is its rhetorical trap. It flatters the listener’s self-knowledge - everyone recognizes the post-purchase letdown - then turns that recognition into an argument for spiritual realism. South doesn’t have to name vanity, sin, or salvation explicitly; the ratio does the moral work. You can almost hear a sermon audience nodding, then squirming, as everyday experience gets conscripted into a larger claim: the world’s promises are structurally unable to deliver what they advertise.
The intent is pastoral but unsentimental. South aims at the subtle self-deception embedded in “expectation”: we don’t merely want things, we pre-enjoy them in imagination, inflating their capacity to satisfy. Possession can only be literal, finite, and quickly normalized; expectation is unlimited and can be edited to taste. The subtext is a theological critique of misplaced ends. If you hitch your happiness to “worldly things,” you’re not just morally off-course; you’re strategically foolish, investing your soul in an asset designed to depreciate the moment it’s acquired.
What makes the sentence work is its rhetorical trap. It flatters the listener’s self-knowledge - everyone recognizes the post-purchase letdown - then turns that recognition into an argument for spiritual realism. South doesn’t have to name vanity, sin, or salvation explicitly; the ratio does the moral work. You can almost hear a sermon audience nodding, then squirming, as everyday experience gets conscripted into a larger claim: the world’s promises are structurally unable to deliver what they advertise.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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