“In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue. It is the practice of sacrificing to those whom we meet in society, all the little inconveniences and preferences which will gratify them, and deprive us of nothing worth a moment's consideration; it is the giving a pleasing and flattering turn to our expressions, which will conciliate others, and make them pleased with us as well as themselves. How cheap a price for the good will of another!” WantGivingWellsLittlesRealEndsMomentsTurnsNaturalPracticeVirtueSacrificeExpressionConsiderationSubstitutesArtificialPreferenceGood WillPolitenessFlatteringHabitualInconvenienceRenderingGood Humor Author:Thomas Jefferson
“The criminal law has, from the point of view of thwarted virtue, the merit of allowing an outlet for those impulses of aggression which cowardice, disguised as morality, restrains in their more spontaneous forms. War has the same merit. You must not kill you neighbor, whom perhaps you genuinely hate, but by a little propaganda this hate can be transferred to some foreign nation, against whom all your murderous impulses become patriotic heroism.” LittlesWarFormLawHateNationsViewsVirtueMoralityPoint Of ViewNeighborCriminalsImpulsePropagandaMeritPatrioticAllowingCowardiceHeroismAggressionSpontaneousOutletsCriminal Law Author:Bertrand Russell
“I think modern educational theorists are inclined to attach too much importance to the negative virtue of not interfering with children, and too little to the positive merit of enjoying their company.” ThinkingChildrenLittlesEnjoyCompanyVirtueToo MuchModernNegativeImportanceEducationalMeritInterfereTheorists Book:In praise of idleness: and other essays Source: In praise of idleness: and other essays