book / wisdom

I'm reading a very good book now.. its stated 'motto,' in extended form:


It is difficult to say for what reason the very things that move our senses most to pleasure & appeal to them most speedily at first are the ones from which we are most quickly estranged by a kind of disgust and surfeit. How much more brilliant, as a rule, in beauty & variety of coloring are new pictures compared to old ones. But though they captivate us at first sight the pleasure does not last, while the very roughness and crudity of old paintings maintains their hold on us. In singing, how much softer & more delicate are glides and trills than firm or severe notes. But not only people of austere taste but often even the crowd protest if such effects are too much repeated. The same is true of the other senses. We enjoy ointments prepared with an extremely sweet and penetrating scent less long than those that are subdued, and even the sense of touch wants only a certain degree of softness and lightness. Taste is the most pleasure-loving of the senses, and more easily attracted by sweetness than the others, yet how quickly it rejects & dislikes anything extremely sweet... Thus in all things disgust borders immediately upon pleasure.

- cicero