Charles Henry Fowler (1837–1908) American bishop
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 537.
“To be benevolent in speculation, is often to be selfish in action and in reality. The vanity and the indolence of man delude him into a thousand inconsistencies. He professes to love the name and the semblance of virtue, but the labour of exertion and of self-denial terrifies him from attempting it. The emotions of kindness are delightful to his bosom, but then they are little better than a selfish indulgence—they terminate in his own enjoyment—they are a mere refinement of luxury. His eye melts over the picture of fictitious distress, while not a tear is left for the actual starvation and misery with which he is surrounded. It is easy to indulge the imaginations of a visionary heart in going over a scene of fancied affliction, because here there is no sloth to overcome—no avaricious propensity to control—no offensive or disgusting circumstance to allay the unmingled impression of sympathy which a soft and elegant picture is calculated to awaken. It is not so easy to be benevolent in action and in reality, because here there is fatigue to undergo—there is time and money to give — there is the mortifying spectacle of vice, and folly, and ingratitude, to encounter.”
Source: Discourses on the Christian Revelation viewed in connection with the Modern Astronomy together with his sermons... (1818), P. 175.
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Thomas Chalmers18
Scottish mathematician and a leader of the Free Church of S… 1780–1847Related quotes
“Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage: for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.”
Humanam impotentiam in moderandis et coercendis affectibus servitutem voco; homo enim affectibus obnoxius sui juris non est sed fortunæ in cujus potestate ita est ut sæpe coactus sit quanquam meliora sibi videat, deteriora tamen sequi.
Baruch Spinoza book Ethics
Part IV, Preface; translation by R. H. M. Elwes
Ethics (1677)
Arthur Schopenhauer book Parerga and Paralipomena
“Similes, Parables and Fables” Parerga and Paralipomena, vol. 2, § 394
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)
George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism
Introduction to The Ethics of Spinoza (1910)
“Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature — opposition to it, in his love of justice.”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1850s, Speech at Peoria, Illinois (1854)
Context: Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature — opposition to it, in his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery extension brings them, shocks, and throes, and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri Compromise — repeal all compromises — repeal the Declaration of Independence — repeal all past history, you still can not repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of man's heart, that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.
Adam Smith book The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Section I, Chap. I.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Part I
“Every man has his own reason for every deed. Usually it is selfish.”
David Gemmell book Quest for Lost Heroes
Source: Drenai series, Quest for Lost Heroes, Ch. 10
