He wonders if the pressures to please a large family outweigh the option of pleasing oneself, but resists the temptation to pass judgment.

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.

There is an ancient adage, whispered these days, that goes: "First marriage, to please one's parents; second marriage, to please oneself."

The answer is, the desire to please oneself is always expanded rather than fulfilled, which means it quickly loses appreciation of the normal and seeks the exotic.

How odd people were, how unpredictable and curious, how difficult it was to know how to behave so that one pleased oneself and society as well.

The issue is not one of having to choose between a partner and a sport or hobby, but it may well be the choice between a partner and the complete freedom to please oneself.

'If one is prepared to do the one thing one is drilled out of doing from earliest childhood - simply please oneself - there is no reason why one should ever be unhappy again.'

Academic J.J. Lee questioned just how much of Warnock's zeal towards Hitler's Reichstag speech on July 19 was genuine enthusiasm for the 'international justice' that could be expected after Germany's victory, as opposed to an adherence to the instructions of Dublin to please oneself to the potential victors.