The appreciation of the connoisseur is the highest pleasure of the artiste. - Norman Spinrad

I could not deny that my spirit was amorally attracted to this ultimate temptation as my conscience was morally repelled by it.

For truth be told, I was tormented by perceptions and their corollary temptation which from a social definition rendered me unsane, though from a more absolute viewpoint what I might be said to have been suffering from was an excess of insight.

“If the path exists for spirit to transcend this sorry scheme of things entire, vraiment, it must exist for all.”
Or for none at all, I thought, but deigned not to voice.