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If, for one who desires sensual pleasure (kāma),
that pleasure succeeds,
assuredly he becomes rapturous in mind (pītimano),
a mortal who has gained what he wishes.
But if, for that person desiring,
for the being in whom desire (chanda) has arisen,
those sensual pleasures waste away,
he is afflicted as though pierced by a dart.
He who avoids sensual pleasures,
as one would a serpent's head with the foot —
he, mindful (sato), passes beyond
this attachment (visattikā) in the world.
Fields, land, and gold,
cattle and horses, slaves and servants,
women, relatives — the many sensual pleasures:
when a man covets these,
the weak overpower him,
perils trample him down;
then suffering (dukkha) follows him
as water [floods] a broken ship.
Therefore a person, ever mindful,
should avoid sensual pleasures;
having abandoned them, he would cross the flood (ogha),
like one gone to the far shore having bailed out the ship.
The Kāma Sutta, the first.
In the Suttanipāta, the fourth chapter, the Aṭṭhakavagga: the second discourse, the Guhaṭṭhaka Sutta.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.