Our moral theorists seem never content with the normal. Why must it always be a contest between fornication, obesity and laziness, and celibacy, fasting and hard labor? – Martin H. Fischer (1879–1962)

He who makes a paradise of his bread makes a hell of his hunger. – Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

That moderation which nature prescribes, which limits our desires by resources restricted to our needs, has abandoned the field; it has now come to this — that to want only what is enough is a sign both of boorishness and of utter destitution. – Seneca (Seneca the Elder)