One defining symptom of decadence is a fondness for vast and nonsensical extravagance.
Luxury and excessive refinement are sure forerunners of the decadence of states, because when all individuals seek their own interests they neglect the public weal.
Luxury and dissipation, soft and gentle as their approaches are, and silently as they throw their silken chains about the heart, enslave it more than the most active and turbulent vices
All luxury corrupts either the morals or the taste.
You don't want to be an animal, you want to observe your own animal functions, so as to get a mental thrill out of them. It is allpurely secondary--and more decadent than the most hide-bound intellectualism.
There's something wildy decadent about the young-star lifestyle, and I just don't really see the point. I got my partying out of my system in college.
