"A Momentary Taste of Being" is a science fiction novella written by Alice Bradley Sheldon, published under the pseudonym James Tiptree, Jr. in the 1975 anthology The New Atlantis and Other Novellas of Science Fiction (also featuring stories by Gene Wolfe and Ursula K. Le Guin).
In a world where the excessive human population necessitates an interstellar search for a habitable planet, Aaron Kaye is the resident psychiatrist of Centaur, the second relativistic starship sent by the United Nations for this endeavor.
The story primarily concerns what occurred on the planet and why Lory was the only returning member.
Tensions among the multinational crew grow as the leaders of the expedition try to decide if they should send a message back to Earth telling them to come to the planet or not.
The title is taken from Edward Fitzgerald's translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, quatrain XL: In addition to its inclusion in the various printings of The New Atlantis and Other Novellas of Science Fiction, the story also appeared in Star Songs of an Old Primate (first published 1978) and Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (first published 1990), both of which are collections of Tiptree's short fiction.