But for me, dinner at a fine restaurant was the ultimate luxury. It was the very height of civilization. For what was civilization but the intellect's ascendancy out of the doldrums of necessity (shelter, sustenance and survival) into the ether of the finely superfluous (poetry, handbags and haute cuisine)? So removed from daily life was the whole experience that when all was rotten to the core, a fine dinner could revive the spirits. If and when I had twenty dollars left to my name, I was going to invest it right here in an elegant hour that couldn't be hocked.
A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life, and as such it must surely be a necessary commodity.
Fathers are biological necessities, but social accidents.
Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.
Habit converts luxurious enjoyments into dull and daily necessities.
A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life.
Men aren't necessities. They're luxuries.
Our necessities never equal our wants.
