The charm of antiques and curios is frequently of the same sort. Even if antiques possess no intrinsic aesthetic or historical interest, a substitute for this is furnished by the mere difficulty of acquiring them: they are worth as much as they cost. It then comes to appear that they cost what they are worth. Furthermore, all ethical merit signifies that for the sake of the morally desirable deed contrary drives and wishes must be combatted and given up. If the act occurs without any conquest, as the direct issue of uninhibited impulses, its content may be objectively desirable, but it is not accorded a subjective moral value in the same sense. Only through the sacrifice of the lower and yet so seductive goods does one reach the height of ethical merit; and the more tempting the seductions and the more profound their sacrifice, the loftier the height.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 243