HKB
60 passages · search this phrase →
Often appears with: justice as a virtue · duty, conscience, and obligation · religious persecution and toleration · sin, guilt, and repentance · pleasure, pain, and the good life · custom and the manners of a people · the passions and the emotions · marriage and betrothal · friendship and loyalty · education and the training of the young · fate, destiny, and necessity · will, choice, and freedom
Usually: censure (107) · argument (102) · indignation (81) · exhortation (45) · detachment (42) · reflection (41) · temptation (38) · narrative (32) · skepticism (30) · injustice endured (21)
“Love is a debt in arrear; time's parted service avails not; Rather is only the more sorrow, a heavier ill.” Gaius Valerius Catullus (translated by Robinson Ellis), The Poems and Fragments of Catullus · insight
“Till Adam thus ’gan Eve to dalliance move. Eve, now I see thou art exact of taste, and elegant, of sapience no small part;” John Milton, Paradise Lost · vivid
“Till Adam, though not less than Eve abashed, At length gave utterance to these words constrained. O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give ear To that false worm, of whomsoever taught To counterfeit Man’s voice; true in our fall, False in our promised rising; since our eyes Opened we find indeed, and find we know Both good and evil; good lost, and evil got; Bad fruit of knowledge, if this be to know;” John Milton, Paradise Lost · insight
“Whatever hypocrites austerely talk / Of purity, and place, and innocence, / Defaming as impure what God declares / Pure, and commands to some, leaves free to all.” John Milton, Paradise Lost · insight
“But, on the whole, tho' I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it;” Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · insight
“It is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.” Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom · precept
“Deception is the natural defence of the weak against the strong, and the South used it for many years against its conquerors; to-day it must be prepared to see its black proletariat turn that same two-edged weapon against itself.” W. E. B. Du Bois (William Edward Burghardt Du Bois), The Souls of Black Folk · insight
“Nor is this situation peculiar to the Southern United States, is it not rather the only method by which undeveloped races have gained the right to share modern culture? The price of culture is a Lie.” W. E. B. Du Bois (William Edward Burghardt Du Bois), The Souls of Black Folk · insight
“Come Death, so subtly veiled that I Thy coming know not, how or when, Lest it should give me life again To find how sweet it is to die.” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · vivid
“And downward from the top of the hard bank Supine he gave him to the pendent rock, That one side of the other Bolgia walls.” Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Hell · vivid
“Feeling her careful attention as an insult to his manliness, he ran back to her in a rage, and beat her, as well as his strength would permit.” James Boswell, Boswell's Life of Johnson · vivid
“A medal has no value but as a stamp of merit. And was Sheridan to assume to himself the right of giving that stamp? If Sheridan was magnificent enough to bestow a gold medal as an honorary reward of dramatick excellence, he should have requested one of the Universities to choose the person on whom it should be conferred.” James Boswell, Boswell's Life of Johnson · insight
The passage continues Sura XXIX’s admonitions, promises refuge for believers, stresses death and the afterlife as real, contrasts worldly “pastime” with true life, and warns against inventing lies about God and rejecting His signs.
He knoweth all that is in the Heavens and the Earth, and they who believe in vain things13 and disbelieve in God-these shall be the lost ones. They will challenge thee to hasten the punishment: but had there not been a season fixed for it, that punishment had already come upon them. But it shall overtake them suddenly when they look not for it. They will challenge thee to hasten the punishment: but verily Hell shal…
After repeating the translator’s discussion of Muhammad’s alleged psychological self-deception, the text gives Qur’an Sura II (The Cow) opening verses: guidance through faith, prayer, charity, and conviction in the life to come, plus warnings to hypocrites.
1 See Sura 1xviii. p. 32. 2 This is said by the traditionists and commentators generally, to refer to Amir and Arbad ben Kais, who in the year 9 or 10 conspired against Muhammad's life, and were struck dead by lightning. See the authorities in Nöld. p. 120: Weil, 256; Caussin, iii. 295. But this explanation may have been suggested by the words of the text, which must, if the comment be correct, have been revealed at…
Sura II continues with examples of unbelievers as fire- and storm-blinded, commands worship and producing a comparable sura, promises gardens to righteous believers, and introduces parables like the gnat and the nature of covenant-breakers.
Deaf, dumb, blind: therefore they shall not retrace their steps from error! Or like those who, when there cometh a storm-cloud out of the Heaven, big with darkness thunder and lightning, thrust their fingers into their ears because of the thunder-clap, for fear of death! God is round about the infidels. The lightning almost snatcheth away their eyes! So oft as it gleameth on them they walk on in it, but when darkne…
Sura LXI (Battle Array) instructs believers to fight in disciplined ranks, recalls Moses and Jesus, promises divine reward, and rebukes hypocrisy and hesitation toward God’s cause.
is, who rejoice in their successful corruptions of their own sacred books, especially the testimony of Moses to Muhammad, and in their own fancied righteousness. Thus some of the commentators. 57 Lit. some of you are from others. These words were occasioned by one of the Prophet's wives having told him that God often praised the men, but not the women, who had fled their country for the faith. Beidh. 58 Lit. their …
Sura LVII (Iron) and a surrounding editorial commentary develop themes of God’s sovereignty, moral accountability, charity, hypocrites at judgment, and worldly life as deceptive, moving from Abraham and Noah into broader exhortations.
1 Addressed to the Muslims who had turned their backs to the enemy at Ohod. 2 Muhammad had no doubt heard that Jesus had promised a Paracletos, John xvi. 7. This title, understood by him, probably from the similarity of sound, as equivalent to Periclytos, he applied to himself with reference to his own name Muhammad (i.e. praised, glorified) from the same root and of the same meaning as Ahmad, also one of the Prophe…
It warns believers about hypocrites who alternate between positions, commands belief in God and scripture, warns against taking infidels as friends, and explains mercy, pardon, and the punishment of those who deny apostolic truth.
you to both. Therefore follow not passion, lest ye swerve from truth. And if ye wrest your testimony or stand aloof, God verily is well aware of what ye do. O ye who believe! believe in God and his Apostle, and the Book which he hath sent down to his Apostle, and the Book which he hath sent down aforetime. Whoever believeth not on God and his Angels and his Books and his Apostles, and in the last day, he verily hath…
Further verses address women’s veiling, the denunciation of hypocrites in Medina, God’s curse on infidels, the end-times “Hour,” moral speech, and divine justice for humans who reject obedience.
Whether ye bring a matter to the light or hide it, God truly hath knowledge of all things. No blame shall attach to them (your wives) for speaking to their fathers unveiled, or to their sons, or to their brothers, or to their brothers' sons, or to their sisters' sons, or to their women, or to the slaves whom their right hands hold. And fear ye God: for God witnesseth all things. Verily, God and His Angels bless the…
Du Bois explains how “double thoughts” and social classes force ethical paradoxes on Black Americans, producing either hypocrisy or radical revolt when prejudice and injustice crush rights and ideals.
with double thoughts, double duties, and double social classes, must give rise to double words and double ideals, and tempt the mind to pretence or revolt, to hypocrisy or radicalism. In some such doubtful words and phrases can one perhaps most clearly picture the peculiar ethical paradox that faces the Negro of to-day and is tingeing and changing his religious life. Feeling that his rights and his dearest ideals ar…
Du Bois contrasts Northern and Southern Black political tendencies, arguing that in the South deception and flattery become practical “defences,” with the “price of culture” framed as lying under racial rule.
all, is not this simply the writhing of the age translated into black,—the triumph of the Lie which today, with its false culture, faces the hideousness of the anarchist assassin? To-day the two groups of Negroes, the one in the North, the other in the South, represent these divergent ethical tendencies, the first tending toward radicalism, the other toward hypocritical compromise. It is no idle regret with which th…
He warns that two kinds of people misunderstand salvation: those who justify themselves by outward works and those who presume on God’s mercy without fearing sin, distinguishing true faith.
good will of God upon me in the blood of his son Christ, which hath made satisfaction for mine unperfections, and fulfilled from me, that which I could not do. Here may ye perceive that two manner of people are sore deceived. First they which justify them self with outward deeds, in that they abstain outwardly from that which the law forbiddeth, and do outwardly that which the law commandeth. They compare them selve…
Further Sermon on the Mount teachings contrast almsgiving, prayer, and fasting done publicly versus secretly, includes the Lord’s Prayer, condemns hypocrisy, and warns against divided service to God and mammon.
The sixth Chapter. Take heed to your alms. That ye give it not in the sight of men, to the intent that ye would be seen of them. Or else ye get no reward of your father in heaven. Whensoever therefore thou givest thine alms, thou shalt not make a trumpet to be blown before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues, and in the streets, for to be praised of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But wh…
After a night prayer, Jesus appoints twelve apostles, teaches the crowd with blessings and woes, and gives ethical commands like loving enemies, judging not, forgiving, and avoiding hypocritical self-examination.
also that were vexed with foul spirits, and they were healed. And all the people pressed to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all. And he lifted up his eyes upon the disciples, and said: Blessed are ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger: for ye shall be satisfied. Blessed are ye that weep: for ye shall laugh. Blessed are ye when men hate you, and thrust you o…
Jesus addresses Simon the Pharisee, praises a repentant woman who anoints his feet, declares that her sins are forgiven, then recounts Jesus traveling with the Twelve and women supporters and teaching the parable of the sower and proper hearing.
of them tell me, will love him most? Simon answered, and said: I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him: Thou hast truly judged. And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon: Seest thou this woman? I entered into thy house, and thou gavest me no water to my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but she, since the tim…
Jesus teaches that true blessedness is hearing and keeping God’s word, warns an unbelieving Israel will receive only Jonah’s sign, and condemns hypocrisy in speech, sight, tithing, and judicial neglect.
him: Happy is the womb that bare thee and the paps, which gave thee suck. But he said: Happy are they that hear the word of God, and keep it. When the people were gathered thick together: He began to say: This is an evil nation. They seek a sign, and there shall no sign be given them, but the sign of Ionas the prophet. For as Ionas was a sign to the Ninivites, so shall the son of man be to this nation. The queen of …
Douglass continues condemning slavery’s fraud by showing how masters manipulate slaves’ desires—using molasses and altered food allowances—to make them associate freedom or extra provision with abuse.
and marched to the field,—feeling, upon the whole, rather glad to go, from what our master had deceived us into a belief was freedom, back to the arms of slavery. I have said that this mode of treatment is a part of the whole system of fraud and inhumanity of slavery. It is so. The mode here adopted to disgust the slave with freedom, by allowing him to see only the abuse of it, is carried out in other things. For in…
The narrator praises Castruccio’s exceptional talents, appearance, and character through anecdotes about wit, justice, and prudence, including remarks on money, flattery, morality, and leadership, culminating in a comparison to wisdom.
lost Pisa, and then Pistoia, and only with difficulty held on to Lucca. This latter city continued in the family of Guinigi until the time of the great-grandson of Pagolo. From what has been related here it will be seen that Castruccio was a man of exceptional abilities, not only measured by men of his own time, but also by those of an earlier date. In stature he was above the ordinary height, and perfectly proporti…
Douglass argues that slavery’s wrong is so plain that he refuses further proof, turning to “scorching irony,” and declares that the Fourth of July exposes cruel hypocrisy and sham liberty.
myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for *him*. What! am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow-men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their li…
After their deaths, Pelopidas gets a funeral from friends and Marcellus one from enemies, and the passage concludes that enemy admiration can reveal virtue more truly than self-interested praise.
their other virtues upon that of bravery, and throwing away their lives, as if the loss would be only felt by themselves, and not by their country, allies, and friends. After Pelopidas's death, his friends, for whom he died, made a funeral for him; the enemies, by whom he had been killed, made one for Marcellus. A noble and happy lot indeed the former, yet there is something higher and greater in the admiration rend…
Stories about Pompey’s sexual conduct and household restraint are told, including Flora the courtesan’s account and rumors involving Demetrius’s wife, alongside anecdotes of Pompey’s restraint in sickness and later timing.
of consular dignity, when he was pleading in favor of him, thought it not unfit to say, that people could not be surprised if Philip was a lover of Alexander. It is related of Flora, the courtesan, that when she was now pretty old; she took great delight in speaking of her early familiarity with Pompey, and was wont to say, that she could never part after being with him without a bite. She would further tell, that …
Cato insults Caesar after a suspicious note proves to be a love letter from Servilia, then Plutarch explains Cato’s troubled women’s relationships—Servilia’s affairs, his sister’s conduct, Atilia’s divorce, and Cato’s later marriage to Marcia.
is said, established the first example of the art. Thus Cato carried it, and so turned the house again, that it was decreed the conspirators should be put to death. Not to omit any small matters that may serve to show Cato's temper, and add something to the portraiture of his mind, it is reported, that while Caesar and he were in the very heat, and the whole senate regarding them two, a little note was brought in to…
The narrative criticizes Cicero’s habit of praising himself excessively while also noting his generosity toward others and recounting anecdotes about his sharp wit and rhetorical tactics, including compliments and insults toward figures like Crassus.
declared the Father of his Country, which title he seems to have obtained, the first man who did so, when Cato gave it him in this address to the people. At this time, therefore, his authority was very great in the city; but he created himself much envy, and offended very many, not by any evil action, but because he was always lauding and magnifying himself. For neither senate, nor assembly of the people, nor court…
Sancho claims Dorothea, who calls herself queen of Micomicon, is no true queen because she repeatedly gets close to Don Fernando, and Don Quixote reacts with furious insult until Dorothea reframes it as enchantment.
returned Don Quixote, “provided thy words be not meant to work upon my fears; for thou, if thou fearest, art behaving like thyself; but I like myself, in not fearing.” “It is nothing of the sort, as I am a sinner before God,” said Sancho, “but that I take it to be sure and certain that this lady, who calls herself queen of the great kingdom of Micomicon, is no more so than my mother; for, if she was what she says, s…
The cousin and Don Quixote discuss dedicating books to Spanish lords, then plan to seek shelter, meet an inn-bound soldierly man, and discuss hermits’ hens and modern hypocrisy.
can cite so grave and veracious an authority as Señor Durandarte. And the fourth thing is, that I have ascertained the source of the river Guadiana, heretofore unknown to mankind.” “You are right,” said Don Quixote; “but I should like to know, if by God’s favour they grant you a licence to print those books of yours—which I doubt—to whom do you mean to dedicate them?” “There are lords and grandees in Spain to whom …
Trifaldi quotes romantic poems sung by Don Clavijo and condemns amatory poets, claiming their verses pierce hearts like thorns and lightning, while love-slogans and paradoxes lure simple people.
From that sweet enemy of mine My bleeding heart hath had its wound; And to increase the pain I’m bound To suffer and to make no sign. The lines seemed pearls to me and his voice sweet as syrup; and afterwards, I may say ever since then, looking at the misfortune into which I have fallen, I have thought that poets, as Plato advised, ought to be banished from all well-ordered States; at least the amatory ones, for the…
In the introduction, Wollstonecraft says women are weakened and made unhappy by a false male-driven education that prioritizes beauty over reason, and she claims this produces insincere, shallow “refinement” that harms morality.
INTRODUCTION. After considering the historic page, and viewing the living world with anxious solicitude, the most melancholy emotions of sorrowful indignation have depressed my spirits, and I have sighed when obliged to confess, that either nature has made a great difference between man and man, or that the civilization, which has hitherto taken place in the world, has been very partial. I have turned over various …
She attacks Dr. Gregory’s advice to cultivate fondness for dress and to practice dissimulation, arguing such guidance is unnatural, based on power, and harms mothers’ duty to cultivate women’s true hearts.
The amiable Dr. Gregory fell into a similar error. I respect his heart; but entirely disapprove of his celebrated Legacy to his Daughters. He advises them to cultivate a fondness for dress, because a fondness for dress, he asserts, is natural to them. I am unable to comprehend what either he or Rousseau mean, when they frequently use this indefinite term. If they told us, that in a pre-existent state the soul was …
Wollstonecraft criticizes fashionable, insincere female conduct, arguing that women should act from inner character, reject “dissimulation,” and value virtue and sincere affection over performance and “appearances.”
decorous prejudices, without leaving modesty behind. Make the heart clean, and give the head employment, and I will venture to predict that there will be nothing offensive in the behaviour. The air of fashion, which many young people are so eager to attain, always strikes me like the studied attitudes of some modern prints, copied with tasteless servility after the antiques; the soul is left out, and none of the par…
Wollstonecraft criticizes “partial humanity” that reacts with tears yet ignores suffering in daily life, using examples of a socially refined lady and concluding that women’s ignorance fuels this hypocrisy.
did not mean to confine my remark to the poor, for partial humanity, founded on present sensations or whim, is quite as conspicuous, if not more so, amongst the rich. The lady who sheds tears for the bird starved in a snare, and execrates the devils in the shape of men, who goad to madness the poor ox, or whip the patient ass, tottering under a burden above its strength, will, nevertheless, keep her coachman and hor…
She claims women’s vanity in dress, rivalry, and “cunning” come from lack of cultivated mind under constraint, and she critiques authority-based virtue as unstable and hypocritical.
Ignorance and the mistaken cunning that nature sharpens in weak heads, as a principle of self-preservation, render women very fond of dress, and produce all the vanity which such a fondness may naturally be expected to generate, to the exclusion of emulation and magnanimity. I agree with Rousseau, that the physical part of the art of pleasing consists in ornaments, and for that very reason I should guard girls again…
Wollstonecraft disputes stereotypes of women’s greater sensibility and humanity, arguing their “exclusive affection” arises from confined views and injustice, which prevents genuine justice and generosity.
Women are supposed to possess more sensibility, and even humanity, than men, and their strong attachments and instantaneous emotions of compassion are given as proofs; but the clinging affection of ignorance has seldom any thing noble in it, and may mostly be resolved into selfishness, as well as the affection of children and brutes. I have known many weak women whose sensibility was entirely engrossed by their husb…
He argues seduction can make children polymorphously perverse by overwhelming early shame and morality, then discusses “partial impulses” like looking and cruelty developing alongside genital activity.
adaptation for prostitution, even if they do not follow this calling, it is absolutely impossible not to recognize in their uniform disposition for all perversions the universal and primitive human. *Partial Impulses.*--For the rest, the influence of seduction does not aid us in unravelling the original relations of the sexual impulse, but rather confuses our understanding of the same, inasmuch as it prematurely sup…
Christian meets Simple, Sloth, and Presumption asleep with fetters; then Formalist and Hypocrisy argue about custom and entering by the wall, while Christian insists on the rule and continues toward the Hill Difficulty’s spring.
he saw, a little out of the way, three men fast asleep, with fetters upon their heels. The name of the one was Simple, another Sloth, and the third Presumption. {96} Christian then seeing them lie in this case went to them, if peradventure he might awake them, and cried, You are like them that sleep on the top of a mast, for the Dead Sea is under you--a gulf that hath no bottom. [Prov. 23:34] Awake, therefore, and c…
Christian recounts his combat with Apollyon and his darkness in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, then Faithful meets Talkative, who wants profitable discourse but mainly excels at empty talk.
to spend their time, (as they are in their travels), but choose much rather to be speaking of things to no profit; and this hath been a trouble for me. FAITH. That is indeed a thing to be lamented; for what things so worthy of the use of the tongue and mouth of men on earth as are the things of the God of heaven? TALK. I like you wonderful well, for your sayings are full of conviction; and I will add, what thing is…
Talkative is introduced through Talkative’s social habit of discussing religion for show, and Christian explains his hypocrisy, including the proverb-style contrast between saying and doing.
FAITH. Whose son is he? And whereabout does he dwell? CHR. He is the son of one Say-well; he dwelt in Prating Row; and is known of all that are acquainted with him, by the name of Talkative in Prating Row; and notwithstanding his fine tongue, he is but a sorry fellow. {191} FAITH. Well, he seems to be a very pretty man. CHR. That is, to them who have not thorough acquaintance with him; for he is best abroad; near …
Faithful and Christian distinguish practical religion from mere hearing and speaking, using analogies of body without soul and seed without fruit, and compare Talkative’s knowledge to unclean animals.
because, like a Christian, you make your reports of men. For I cannot think that you speak these things of ill-will, but because it is even so as you say. CHR. Had I known him no more than you, I might perhaps have thought of him, as, at the first, you did; yea, had he received this report at their hands only that are enemies to religion, I should have thought it had been a slander,--a lot that often falls from bad …
Talkative is rebuked for making religion out of talk rather than heart-work, and Christian and Faithful approve of confronting such hypocrisy, even though it costs them social comfort.
himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. Besides, to say I am thus and thus, when my conversation, and all my neighbours, tell me I lie, is great wickedness. {204} TALK. Then Talkative at first began to blush; but, recovering himself, thus he replied: You come now to experience, to conscience, and God; and to appeal to him for justification of what is spoken. This kind of discourse I did not expect; nor am…
After the fair, Christian finds Hopeful joined to him, and they meet By-ends from Fair-speech, who presents himself as respectable while admitting his religion differs in accommodating public life and applause.
Pickthank's testimony PICK. My Lord, and you gentlemen all, This fellow I have known of a long time, and have heard him speak things that ought not to be spoke; for he hath railed on our noble prince Beelzebub, and hath spoken contemptibly of his honourable friends, whose names are the Lord Old Man, the Lord Carnal Delight, the Lord Luxurious, the Lord Desire of Vain Glory, my old Lord Lechery, Sir Having Greedy, wi…
In conversation, By-ends tries to justify his reputation by-virtue-of-compromise, insisting he can be a “fair company-keeper” while refusing to “lord it over” his faith.
that is given me by some that cannot abide me: and I must be content to bear it as a reproach, as other good men have borne theirs before me. {247} CHR. But did you never give an occasion to men to call you by this name? BY-ENDS. Never, never! The worst that ever I did to give them an occasion to give me this name was, that I had always the luck to jump in my judgment with the present way of the times, whatever it …
Christian refutes the “stalking-horse” logic behind using religion for gain, citing biblical examples of heathens, hypocrites, Judas, and Simon, and the company falls silent before moving on past a perilous silver mine.
daughter and their cattle were that which they sought to obtain, and their religion the stalking-horse they made use of to come at them. Read the whole story. [Gen. 34:20-23] {262} 2. The hypocritical Pharisees were also of this religion; long prayers were their pretence, but to get widows' houses was their intent; and greater damnation was from God their judgment. [Luke 20:46-47] {263} 3. Judas the devil was also …
On the Delectable Mountains’ route Christian and Hopeful meet Shepherds and receive counsel, then later encounter Ignorance from the country of Conceit who claims good living without entering by the wicket-gate correctly.
with the good of these Delectable Mountains. They then told them, that they were content to stay; so they went to their rest that night, because it was very late. {299} Then I saw in my dream, that in the morning the Shepherds called up to Christian and Hopeful to walk with them upon the mountains; so they went forth with them, and walked a while, having a pleasant prospect on every side. Then said the Shepherds one…
Christian and Hopeful follow a black-clothed man into a net that entangles them until a Shining One identifies him as Flatterer, tears the net, and warns them for failing to read directions.
Poor Little-faith! Hast been among the thieves? Wast robb'd? Remember this, whoso believes, And gets more faith, shall then a victor be Over ten thousand, else scarce over three. {328} So they went on and Ignorance followed. They went then till they came at a place where they saw a way put itself into their way, and seemed withal to lie as straight as the way which they should go: and here they knew not which of the…
Tocqueville contrasts aristocratic moral talk of self-forgetfulness with American moral teaching that virtue is useful, arguing that in democratic societies people are drawn into self-denial because it serves personal interest rightly understood.
Interest Rightly Understood When the world was managed by a few rich and powerful individuals, these persons loved to entertain a lofty idea of the duties of man. They were fond of professing that it is praiseworthy to forget one's self, and that good should be done without hope of reward, as it is by the Deity himself. Such were the standard opinions of that time in morals. I doubt whether men were more virtuous in…
Zarathustra expands his address: the Superman is the meaning of earth, the body’s poverty and pollution matter, contempt and self-satisfaction provoke transformation, and the crowd laughs at him while a rope-dancer continues.
is my virtue! As yet it hath not made me passionate. How weary I am of my good and my bad! It is all poverty and pollution and wretched self-complacency!” The hour when ye say: “What good is my justice! I do not see that I am fervour and fuel. The just, however, are fervour and fuel!” The hour when ye say: “What good is my pity! Is not pity the cross on which he is nailed who loveth man? But my pity is not a crucif…
In “The Academic Chairs of Virtue,” a wise man praises managing sleep through daily self-overcoming, reconciliation, truth-seeking, and controlled virtue, while Zarathustra laughs at its apparent foolishness.
Peace with God and thy neighbour: so desireth good sleep. And peace also with thy neighbour’s devil! Otherwise it will haunt thee in the night. Honour to the government, and obedience, and also to the crooked government! So desireth good sleep. How can I help it, if power like to walk on crooked legs? He who leadeth his sheep to the greenest pasture, shall always be for me the best shepherd: so doth it accord with …
Zarathustra rejects neighbor-love as misled self-adornment, urges solitude for creating a friend from oneself, and warns against self-flattery and hollow associations that belittle character.
Ye cannot endure it with yourselves, and do not love yourselves sufficiently: so ye seek to mislead your neighbour into love, and would fain gild yourselves with his error. Would that ye could not endure it with any kind of near ones, or their neighbours; then would ye have to create your friend and his overflowing heart out of yourselves. Ye call in a witness when ye want to speak well of yourselves; and when ye h…
Zarathustra mocks “present-day men” as masked, untrustworthy, and inconsistent, claiming their reality is painted-over falseness and that even their beliefs and customs contradict each other.
I laughed and laughed, while my foot still trembled, and my heart as well. “Here forsooth, is the home of all the paintpots,”—said I. With fifty patches painted on faces and limbs—so sat ye there to mine astonishment, ye present-day men! And with fifty mirrors around you, which flattered your play of colours, and repeated it! Verily, ye could wear no better masks, ye present-day men, than your own faces! Who could…
Zarathustra continues his critique, saying small people grow smaller through doctrines of comfort, practice cowardice disguised as virtue, hypocrisy among rulers and servants, and lying that avoids decisive power.
To small virtues would they fain lure and laud me; to the ticktack of small happiness would they fain persuade my foot. I pass through this people and keep mine eyes open; they have become SMALLER, and ever become smaller:—THE REASON THEREOF IS THEIR DOCTRINE OF HAPPINESS AND VIRTUE. For they are moderate also in virtue,—because they want comfort. With comfort, however, moderate virtue only is compatible. To be su…
Zarathustra condemns the magician’s equivocations and disgust as counterfeit, but honors the man’s admitted collapse from seeking greatness; the magician then says he seeks a “genuine” Zarathustra, and Zarathustra sends him to his cave for counsel.
I divine thee well: thou hast become the enchanter of all the world; but for thyself thou hast no lie or artifice left,—thou art disenchanted to thyself! Thou hast reaped disgust as thy one truth. No word in thee is any longer genuine, but thy mouth is so: that is to say, the disgust that cleaveth unto thy mouth.”— —“Who art thou at all!” cried here the old magician with defiant voice, “who dareth to speak thus unt…
Zarathustra continues “The Higher Man,” warning higher people against honesty-lacking falseness and crowd thinking, urging secret reasons, distrust of learned people, and using one’s own legs to reach one’s height.
6. Ye higher men, think ye that I am here to put right what ye have put wrong? Or that I wished henceforth to make snugger couches for you sufferers? Or show you restless, miswandering, misclimbing ones, new and easier footpaths? Nay! Nay! Three times Nay! Always more, always better ones of your type shall succumb,—for ye shall always have it worse and harder. Thus only— —Thus only groweth man aloft to the height…
A “conscientious one” criticizes the “higher men” for lust and fear, claiming even virtue and science arise from fear of inner beasts, while Zarathustra’s reply reverses it into courage, adventure, and human origins in daring.
—Thou old melancholy devil, out of thy lament soundeth a lurement: thou resemblest those who with their praise of chastity secretly invite to voluptuousness!” Thus spake the conscientious one; the old magician, however, looked about him, enjoying his triumph, and on that account put up with the annoyance which the conscientious one caused him. “Be still!” said he with modest voice, “good songs want to re-echo well; …
Zarathustra’s shadow sings of “daughters of the desert,” celebrating a clear Oriental air unlike “Old-Europe,” using erotic desert imagery and mocking moral “virtue” as a roaring, lion-like compensation.
—But it’s naught to you, Ye friendly damsels dearly loved, At whose own feet to me, The first occasion, To a European under palm-trees, A seat is now granted. Selah. Wonderful, truly! Here do I sit now, The desert nigh, and yet I am So far still from the desert, Even in naught yet deserted: That is, I’m swallowed down By this the smallest oasis—: —It opened up just yawning, It…
“Suicide in the Trenches,” “Glory of Women,” “Their Frailty,” “The Hawthorn Tree,” and “The Investiture” expose grief, cruelty, and hypocrisy toward soldiers’ suffering, contrasting adoration at home with nightmares at the front.
or any hope of cheer, Cowed anger in their eyes, till darkness brims And roars into their heads, and they can hear Old childish talk, and tags of foolish hymns. He sniffs the chilly air; (his dreaming starts). He's riding in a dusty Sussex lane In quiet September; slowly night departs; And he's a living soul, absolved from pain. Beyond the brambled fences where he goes Are glimmering fields with harvest piled in she…
Locke argues that adults rarely question inherited principles because of practical pressures, fear of shame and stigma, and reverence for principles as God-given standards, so people end up worshiping mental “idols.”
25. Further explained. This is evidently the case of all children and young folk; and custom, a greater power than nature, seldom failing to make them worship for divine what she hath inured them to bow their minds and submit their understandings to, it is no wonder that grown men, either perplexed in the necessary affairs of life, or hot in the pursuit of pleasures, should not seriously sit down to examine their ow…
Locke concludes that people can change what feels pleasant or unpleasant by correcting their palates of mind and body, using reason, practice, and habit, and he insists that vice’s preference over virtue is a manifest wrong judgment.
72. Preference of Vice to Virtue a manifest wrong Judgment. I shall not now enlarge any further on the wrong judgments and neglect of what is in their power, whereby men mislead themselves. This would make a volume, and is not my business. But whatever false notions, or shameful neglect of what is in their power, may put men out of their way to happiness, and distract them, as we see, into so different courses of li…
Locke begins an account of the association of ideas, saying people readily condemn others’ unreasonableness while overlooking their own, and that the source isn’t simply self-love, education, or prejudice.
OF THE ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS. 1. Something unreasonable in most Men. There is scarce any one that does not observe something that seems odd to him, and is in itself really extravagant, in the opinions, reasonings, and actions of other men. The least flaw of this kind, if at all different from his own, every one is quick-sighted enough to espy in another, and will by the authority of reason forwardly condemn; though …
Faraday argues that judging primary vs secondary products by chemistry alone can mislead, criticizes older claims about metal deposition proving attraction to the cathode, and proposes using constant electro-chemical action to decide quantities and thus product character.
through both arrangements, that electricity must have been in a very different state, as to *tension*, between the plates and between the wires; yet the chemical results were the same. 725. The difference in intensity, under the circumstances described, may be easily shown practically, by arranging two decomposing apparatus as in fig. 67, where the same fluid is subjected to the decomposing power of the same current…
Hume claims customs and stations change how talents are valued, critiques cynical Stoic and Cynic cant and modern ostentation, then insists many non-disinterested traits still deserve praise and acceptance.
celebrated for this talent; and Cicero enumerates it among the other sublime qualities of Caesar himself. [Footnote: Fruit in Illo Ingenium, ratio, memoria, literae, cura, cogitatio, diligentia &c. Phillip. 2.]. Particular customs and manners alter the usefulness of qualities: they also alter their merit. Particular situations and accidents have, in some degree, the same influence. He will always be more esteemed, w…
In Appendix II on self-love, Hume attacks the view that all benevolence and friendship are hypocrisy, then argues that selfish-systems may still coexist with real probity and humane character differences.
animals, and indeed from all other species of existence, admit of no degrees of good or bad, but are, in every instance, the same creatures under different disguises and appearances. There is another principle, somewhat resembling the former; which has been much insisted on by philosophers, and has been the foundation of many a system; that, whatever affection one may feel, or imagine he feels for others, no passion…
He argues that English rarely draws exact boundaries between virtues and talents or vices and defects, then explains why people esteem different traits differently and how self-conceit shapes moral language.
AMOUR PROPRE, but as they also express self-love as well as vanity by the same term, there arises thence a great confusion in Rochefoucault, and many of their moral writers.] arises from the endowments of courage and capacity, industry and ingenuity, as well as from any other mental excellencies. Who, on the other hand, is not deeply mortified with reflecting on his own folly and dissoluteness, and feels not a secre…
Nietzsche attacks self-renunciation morality and aesthetic “disinterested contemplation” as sugar-coated witchery, warning that they may be deceits despite how pleasing they feel.
for the long-secret labour which has been reserved for the most refined, the most upright, and also the most wicked consciences of today, as the living touchstones of the soul. 33. It cannot be helped: the sentiment of surrender, of sacrifice for one's neighbour, and all self-renunciation-morality, must be mercilessly called to account, and brought to judgment; just as the aesthetics of "disinterested contemplation,…