In the alchemy of man's soul almost all noble attributes- courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, loyalty, and so on- can be transmuted into ruthlessness. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion, even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.
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Veracity is the heart of morality.
Veracity is the heart of morality.
The more kindness shown to an envious man, the worse he becomes.
The more kindness shown to an envious man, the worse he becomes.
Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will read more
Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.
When an elephant is in trouble even a frog will kick him.
When an elephant is in trouble even a frog will kick him.
The highest stage in moral culture at which we can arrive is when we recognize that we ought to control read more
The highest stage in moral culture at which we can arrive is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
We have rudiments of reverence for the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind.
We have rudiments of reverence for the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind.
It is perhaps not entirely so, though it has often been said, that man makes his God in his own read more
It is perhaps not entirely so, though it has often been said, that man makes his God in his own image. Rather does he create Him in the image of his cravings and dreams- in the image of what man wants to be. God making could be part of the process by which a society realizes its aspirations: it first embodies them in the conception of a particular God, and then proceeds to imitate that God. The confidence requisite for attempting the unprecedented is most effectively generated by the fiction that in realizing the new we are imitating rather than originating. Our preoccupation with heaven can be part of an effort to find precedents for the unprecedented.
Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self.
Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self.
...we are entitled to make almost any reasonable assumption, but should resist making conclusions until evidence requires that we do read more
...we are entitled to make almost any reasonable assumption, but should resist making conclusions until evidence requires that we do so.
