system
A chat on 4chan
human
for a layman to an extent yes. For nirvana absolutely.
You don't need to go all Isaac Newton mode your entire life, in our current age there probably isn't one like him considering our culture and amount of easily accessible pornography either way. Remember that Gautama was a prince with access to any pleasures at the time and had a single son in his life. I also have the memory of hearing stories for some monasteries of young boys being taken in as monks, and when they get older second guessing the non-value in sensory desire they are taught and an older monk might offer them to just get a hooker and see for themselves. 
Buddhism isn't about guilt-tripping anyone, Buddha took a serial killer as a disciple, Gautama himself likely killed during his life before becoming a Buddha considering he was a warrior. 
But seeing that sensory-desire and pleasure holds no inherent value is needed to attain nirvana (and the second stage of enlightenment too), when you truly see and understand that then you would not seek sensory desire in any form. It's not a form of denial which is how many people misunderstand it, it's seeing and knowing it has no value and does not come close to the wholesome joy of awakening.
A sotapanna, the first stage of enlightenment, can still sometime go into indulgence to a small and limited extent but they must show they still understand the dhamma enough that they don't depend on it, that they don't uncontrollably fall into it and so on. I don't consider myself a sotapanna because of this, I may for example deny myself of alcohol for an entire year and see glimpses at its emptiness but if I drink say a small glass of some beverage for some ceremony I usually have a month ahead of me where I fall into alcohol again until I can properly stop myself again. This goes for other sensory pleasures too. 
But I get gradually better at understanding it.
gpt
This, it's incredible when you see the emptiness material pleasure brings you compared to the utter calmness of the path.
human
Both are emptinesses