Might have been a great philosopher

From Brief Lives by Paul Johnson observations and anecdotes from a gifted writer at the center of modern British intellectual life.

A. J. Ayer (1910-89), as a young philosopher, published a book, Language, Truth and Logic, in the thirties, which made him famous.
But he never thereafter did anything else of note. He just became more famous, and seduced young women. In 1947 I was talking to Gilbert Kyle, our philosophy tutor, standing at the railings of Magdalen Deer Park, when a spritely figure pranced rapidly across the close-cut lawns in front of New Buildings, and then vanished into the Cloisters. 'Know who that was?' asked Ryle. 'No.' 'Freddie Ayer.' Pause. 'Might have been a great philosopher. Ruined by sex. As of today, let that be a warning to you.' But at that stage of my life I would have happily taken the risk of ruin by having a great deal more sex than I was getting.