Life's Pleasures Quote by Ernest Holmes

Holmes is smuggling spirituality into the hard category of needs, not the soft category of preferences. By pairing it with food, shelter, and clothing, he borrows the moral authority of survival itself: you don’t debate calories, you don’t negotiate the necessity of a roof. The line is engineered to end an argument before it begins, pushing spirituality out of the realm of private hobby and into the realm of public health.

The subtext is a deliberate reframing of modern life’s quiet starvation. People can be materially provisioned and still feel unmoored, anxious, or hollow; Holmes treats that condition not as melodrama but as deprivation. It’s also an implicit critique of the era’s growing faith in industry and rational management. If the early 20th century promised that better systems would solve the human problem, Holmes answers that the human problem isn’t only logistical. You can optimize the pantry and still lose the plot.

Context matters: Holmes, a key figure in Religious Science/New Thought, preached a “Science of Mind” spirituality tuned to the language of practicality and results. Calling spirituality a necessity fits that project. It makes belief sound less like dogma and more like nutrition: a daily practice with measurable effects on resilience, purpose, and behavior.

There’s a strategic inclusiveness, too. He says “spirituality,” not “religion,” sidestepping denominational fights and implying a baseline human requirement for meaning-making. The statement isn’t just comforting; it’s a claim of jurisdiction. If spirituality is necessary, then spiritual teachers aren’t optional guides - they’re providers.