“I only wanted to suggest to you that self-sacrifice is a passion so overwhelming that beside it even lust and hunger are trifling. It whirls its victim to destruction in the highest affirmation of his personality. The object doesn’t matter; it may be worthwhile or it may be worthless. No wine is more intoxicating, no love so shattering, no vice so compelling.”
Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
