Strange to say what delight we married people have to see these poor fools decoyed into our condition.

-Pepys, Samuel
  Diary entry, 25 Dec.

Here lies a lady of beauty and high degree. Of chills and fever she died, of fever and chills, The delight of her husband, her aunts, an infant of three, And of medicos marvelling sweetly on her ills.

-Ransom,John Crowe
  Chills and Fever,'Here Lies a Lady'.

The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry.

-Russell, Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl
  Mysticism and Logic.

Everyone suddenly burst out singing; And I was filled with such delight As prisoned birds must find in freedom,

-Sassoon, Siegfried Louvain
  'Everyone Sang'.

   He has out-soared the shadow of our night; Envyand calumnyand hate and pain, And that unrest which men miscall delight, Can touch him not and torture not again; From the contagion of the world's slow stain He is secure, and now can never mourn A heart grown cold, a head grown grey in vain.

-Shelley, Percy Bysshe
Adonais, stanza 40.

Poetry therefore, is an art of imitation† A speaking picture, with this end: to teach and delight.

-Sidney, Sir Philip
  The Defence of Poetry.

Lo, thro' her works gay nature grieves How brief she is and frail, As ever o'er the falling leaves Autumnal winds prevail. Yet still the philosophic mind Consolatory food can find, And hope her anchorage maintain: We never are deserted quite; 'Tis by succession of delight That love supports his reign.

-Smart, Christopher
  Ode to the Earl of Northumberland, with Some Other Pieces, 'On a Bed of Guernsey Lilies: written in September1763', stanza 2.

What worlds delight, or joy of living speech Can heart, so plunged in sea of sorrows deep, And heape'  d with so huge misfortunes, reach? The careful cold beginneth for to creep, And in my heart his iron arrow steep, Soon as I think upon my bitter bale.

-Spenser, Edmund
  The Faerie Queen, bk.1, canto 7, stanza 39.

   'Tis not the meat; but 'tis the appetite Makes eating a delight.

-Suckling, SirJohn
c.1638  Sonnet no.2.

O happy dames, that may embrace The fruit of your delight, Help to bewail the woeful case And eke the heavy plight Of me, that wonted to rejoice The fortune of my pleasant choice. Good ladies, help to fill my mourning voice.

-Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of
  'O happy dames'.

Away we goöand what care we For treasons, tumults, and for wars? We are as calm in our delight As is the crescent moon so bright Among the scattered stars.

-Wordsworth,William
  'Peter Bell', prologue, stanza 5 (published1819).

   The moving accident is not my trade; To freeze the blood I have no ready arts: 'Tis my delight, alone in summer shade, To pipe a simple song for thinking hearts.

-Wordsworth,William
  'Hart-LeapWell', part 2, l.97^100.

She was a Phantom of delight When first she gleamed upon my sight; A lovelyapparition sent To be a moment's ornament.

-Wordsworth,William
  'She was a Phantom of delight', l.1^4 (published1807).

On Man, on Nature, and on Human Life, Musing in solitude, I oft perceive Fair trains of images before me rise, Accompanied by feelings of delight Pure, or with no unpleasing sadness mixed.

-Wordsworth,William
  'The Excursion', preface, l.1^5.