Buddhacarita by Ven Asvaghosa - Ancient Buddhist Texts

Buddha-carita, or Life of Buddha - 133
the mere thought of them unlucky and fatal, – still more the thought
of the irreligious whose lives are spent in their service
19. ‘Who that considers the paltry flavour of worldly objects, – the
very height of union being only insatiety, – the blame of the virtuous,
and the certain sin, – has ever drawn near this poison which is called
pleasure
20. ‘When they hear of the miseries of those who are intent on
pleasure and are devoted to worldly pursuits, such as agriculture and
the rest, and the self-content of those who are careless of pleasure, –
it well befits the self-controlled to fling it away.
21. ‘Success in pleasure is to be considered a misery in the man of
pleasure, for he becomes intoxicated when his desired pleasures are
attained; through intoxication he does what should not be done, not
what should be done; and being wounded thereby he falls into a
miserable end.
22. ‘These pleasures which are gained and kept by toil, – which after
deceiving leave you and return whence they came, – these pleasures
which are but borrowed for a time, what man of self-control, if he is
wise, would delight in them
23. ‘What man of self-control could find satisfaction in these pleasures
which are like a torch of hay, – which excite thirst when you seek
them and when you grasp them, and which they who abandon not
keep only as misery