on flattery & concupiscence

'Poverty brings few advantages, evidently, but it does bring one: the need to listen to people.' (more) - The Gray Notebook by Josep Pla

as quoted at ianc-b.tumblr.com

and on pg 17

Sometimes I wonder whether concupiscence - what is normally called concupiscence - isn't one of the most potent human motives for action. My reading of Baroja's novels... Perhaps one shouldn't read such rabidly ascetic books - or at least not without alternating them with pornography.

курсив мой - вс

rabidly ascetic - хорошо звучит