In every kind of debauch there enters much coldness of soul. It is a conscious and voluntary abuse of pleasure.
[Il entre, dans toute espèce de débauche, beaucoup de froideur d’àme; elle est un abus réfléchi et volontaire du plaisir.]
Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 5 “Des Passions et des Affections de l’Âme [On the Soul],” ¶ 13, 1805 entry (1850 ed.) [tr. Auster (1983)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:Into every kind of excess there enters much coldness of soul; it is a thoughtful and voluntary abuse of pleasure.
[tr. Calvert (1866), ch. 5]There is much coldness of soul in every kind of excess; -- it is the deliberate and voluntary abuse of pleasure.
[tr. Lyttelton (1899), ch. 4, ¶ 11]There is an element of callousness in every kind of dissipation; it is a deliberate, willful abuse of pleasure.
[tr. Collins (1928), ch. 5]
Quotations about:
coarseness
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Nothing is more frightful than imagination without taste.
[Es ist nichts furchterlicher als Einbildungskraft ohne Geschmack.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Sprüche in Prosa: Maximen und Reflexionen [Proverbs in Prose: Maxims and Reflections] (1833) [tr. Saunders (1893), #489]
(Source)
From Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years (1829). (Source (German)). Alternate translations:There is nothing so horrible as imagination devoid of taste.
[tr. Rönnfeldt (1900)]There is nothing more awful than imagination devoid of taste.
[tr. Stopp (1995), #507]There is nothing more fearful than imagination without taste.
[E.g. (1868)]
