One ought to remove even the bowl of nectar from the lips. Demand is the measure of value... it is a mark of good taste to slake but not to quench it. Little and good is twice good. The second time comes a great falling off. Surfeit of pleasure was ever dangerous... The only way to please is to revive the appetite by the hunger that is left...
Baltasar Gracián, 1647 (tr. Joseph Jacobs, 1892)
The wise stop a little before the end of a pleasure rather than pushing it to satiety, because the last stretch of any enjoyment is where it curdles from pleasure into surfeit. Leaving off while you still want more keeps the appetite alive and the memory sweet, whereas draining a thing to the dregs produces the falling-off, the cloying, the faint disgust that overindulgence always brings. Demand is the measure of value, so a pleasure kept slightly short of full stays valuable, while one taken to excess cheapens itself. This applies broadly: to food, to pleasures, to work, to the presence of good things and people. Little and good is twice good; the same thing repeated to satiety loses the second time what it had the first. Stop at the edge of enough, and the appetite that remains is itself part of the pleasure.
Practice
- Stop a little before satiety; the last stretch of any pleasure is where it curdles into surfeit, so leave off while you still want more (maxim 200 leaves something to wish for).
- Keep the appetite alive; a pleasure kept slightly short stays valuable, while one drained to the dregs cheapens itself.
- Apply it broadly, to food, work, pleasures, and presence; little and good is twice good, and the repeated excess loses what the first taste had.
Use this when
- Use this with any pleasure or indulgence you tend to push too far; the early stop is what preserves the enjoyment.
- Use it to keep things valued; demand is the measure of value, and the appetite left is part of the pleasure (a HEALTH discipline in eating and more).
Ignore this when
- Don't turn leaving-off-hungry into joyless self-denial; the aim is to preserve pleasure, not to refuse it (maxim 229 still wants a rich life).
- Don't apply it to the essentials that require completion; some things must be finished, and the rule is about pleasures, not duties (maxim 242 pushes the real task home).
A picture of it
In the habit of pushing every good thing to its limit, a professional eats past enjoyment into heaviness, works past productivity into depletion, and stays at every gathering until it goes flat, and finds that the excess reliably spoils what began as pleasure. He learns the older discipline of leaving off hungry: pushing back from the table while the food still tastes good, ending the work while it still has quality, leaving the gathering while it is still enjoyable. The appetite he leaves intact keeps each thing valuable and worth returning to. Little and good, he discovers, really is twice good, and the last sip he no longer takes is the one that used to ruin the rest.
Take the bowl from your lips a moment early. The last sip turns pleasure into surfeit, and the appetite you leave is part of the joy.