It is better to live by begging one's bread than to gratify the mouth at the expense of others. [ Hitopadesa ]

Trifles we should not let plague us only, but also gratify us; we should seize not their poison-bags only, but their honey-bags also. [ Richter ]

He who indulges his senses in any excesses renders himself obnoxious to his own reason; and, to gratify the brute in him, displeases the man, and sets his two natures at variance. [ Scott ]

The study of art is a taste at once engrossing and unselfish, which may be indulged without effort, and yet has the power of exciting the deepest emotions, - a taste able to exercise and to gratify both the nobler and softer parts of our nature. [ Guizot ]

There is in some men a dispassionate neutrality of mind, which, though it generally passes for good temper, can neither gratify nor warm us: it must indeed be granted that these men can only negatively offend; but then it should also be remembered that they cannot positively please. [ Lord Greville ]