Try and prove me wrong on this...

[Mudhammam]

I don't know quite what to make of this. Personally, I wouldn't equate emotional well-being with pleasure. The former would include satisfaction, contentment, achievement of targets, the regard of others, and such things. Pleasure seems to be such a lonely thing, self-gratification mostly. Maybe you could summarise the difference by comparing making love with someone to masterbation.

As Cross says, small kindnesses are important, and so, for example, is the opportunity to help people in their careers, which I've been fortunate to be able to do.

Spread the love.

"'Tis sweet, when, down the mighty main, the winds
Roll up its waste of waters, from the land
To watch another's labouring anguish far,
Not that we joyously delight that man
Should thus be smitten, but because 'tis sweet
To mark what evils we ourselves be spared;
'Tis sweet, again, to view the mighty strife
Of armies embattled yonder o'er the plains,
Ourselves no sharers in the peril; but naught
There is more goodly than to hold the high
Serene plateaus, well fortressed by the wise,
Whence thou may'st look below on other men
And see them ev'rywhere wand'ring, all dispersed
In their lone seeking for the road of life;
Rivals in genius, or emulous in rank,
Pressing through days and nights with hugest toil
For summits of power and mastery of the world.
O wretched minds of men! O blinded hearts!
In how great perils, in what darks of life
Are spent the human years, however brief!-
O not to see that Nature for herself
Barks after nothing, save that pain keep off,
Disjoined from the body, and that mind enjoy
Delightsome feeling, far from care and fear!
Therefore we see that our corporeal life
Needs little, altogether, and only such
As takes the pain away, and can besides
Strew underneath some number of delights."

Here Lucretius speaks about the pleasure that is derived from philosophy, from understanding Nature, including the actions of our fellow beings. I tend to think that pleasure in the hedonistic sense--at least as I associate it with selfishness and immediate gratification--is almost unworthy of the title in comparison to the pleasure that can be experienced through cooperation, the pursuit of knowledge, and the like.