pleasures of life

''What enemy has ever treated anyone as roughly as some people’s pleasures treat them? Their desires are uncontrolled—insane—and would be unforgivable, except that the damage is all to themselves. And it’s not without reason that they are tormented with such frenzy. For desires that exceed the bounds of nature cannot but go on to infinity. Our nature has its own limit, but empty and perverse desires are inherently unbounded. Our needs are measured by utility; beyond that, what line is there to draw? So they drown themselves in pleasures, having grown so accustomed to them that they can no longer do without them. They are especially miserable in that they have gotten to a point where what were once luxuries have become necessities. Rather than enjoying their pleasures, they are slaves to them; worst of all, they even love what is worst in themselves. The worst of their condition is when they not only enjoy their shameful behavior but even approve of it. Once vice becomes a code of conduct, there ceases to be any possibility of cure"