There are souls that are incurable and lost to the rest of society. Deprive them of one means of folly, they will invent ten thous...and others. They will create subtler, wilder methods, methods that are absolutely DESPERATE. Nature herself is fundamentally antisocial, it is only by a usurpation of powers that the organized body of society opposes the natural inclination of humanity.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is indolence ... indolence and love of ease; a want of all laudable ambition, of taste for good company, or of inclination to t...ake the trouble of being agreeable, which make men clergymen. A clergyman has nothing to do but be slovenly and selfish; read the newspaper, watch the weather, and quarrel with his wife. His curate does all the work and the business of his own life is to dine.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, and a specific sanction..., to the general sense of the community, is the true end of legislature.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
One cannot long remain so absorbed in contemplation of emptiness without being increasingly attracted to it. In vain one bestows o...n it the name of infinity; this does not change its nature. When one feels such pleasure in non- existence, one's inclination can be completely satisfied only by completely ceasing to exist.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A mind that questions everything, unless strong enough to bear the weight of its ignorance, risks questioning itself and being eng...ulfed in doubt. If it cannot discover the claims to existence of the objects of its questioning--and it would be miraculous if it so soon succeeded in solving so many mysteries--it will deny them all reality, the mere formulation of the problem already implying an inclination to negative solutions. But in so doing it will become void of all positive content and, finding nothing which offers it resistance, will launch itself perforce into the emptiness of inner revery.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Those who are esteemed umpires of taste, are often persons who have acquired some knowledge of admired pictures or sculptures, and... have an inclination for whatever is elegant; but if you inquire whether they are beautiful souls, and whether their own acts are like fair pictures, you learn that they are selfish and sensual. Their cultivation is local, as if you should rub a log of dry wood in one spot to produce fire, all the rest remaining cold.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I had some short struggle in my mind whether I should resign my lover or my liberty, but this lasted not long. I found myself as f...ree as air and could not bear the thought of putting myself in any man's power for life only from a present capricious inclination.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »