Ah! How neatly tied, in these people, is the umbilical cord of morality! Since they left their mothers they have never sinned, hav...e they? They are apostles, they are the descendants of priests; one can only wonder from what source they draw their indignation, and above all how much they have pocketed to do this, and in any case what it has done for them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Several moralists have recommended it as an excellent method of becoming acquainted with our own hearts, and knowing our progress ...in virtue, to recollect our dreams in a morning, and examine them with the same rigour that we would our most serious and most deliberate actions.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The disesteem into which moralists have fallen is due at bottom to their failure to see that in an age like this one the function ...of the moralist is not to exhort men to be good but to elucidate what the good is. The problem of sanctions is secondary.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
What I have absolutely no sympathy with is the legislator, the man who seeks, for his own profit, to exploit the weaknesses of tho...se who are unable to help themselves and then to fasten some moral superscription upon it. This I loathe so much that I cannot conceivably explain how much it is.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to ...air our moral prejudices. I never take any notice of what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »