“A feather will weigh down a scale when there is nothing in the opposite one.”
Book II, Chapter I, On the Progress of Wealth, Section V, p. 355
Principles of Political Economy (Second Edition 1836)
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Thomas Robert Malthus 60
British political economist 1766–1834Related quotes
Extracted from Proverbs Blog https://providencepath.wordpress.com/2016/05/18/jung-myung-seok-checking-is-a-scale/
Euro Trash Cinema magazine interview (March 1996)
Ex parte Castioni (1890), 60 L. J. Rep. (N. S.) Mag. Cas. 33.
“In the scales of the destinies brawn will never weigh so much as brain.”
On Democracy (6 October 1884)
Context: In the scales of the destinies brawn will never weigh so much as brain. Our healing is not in the storm or in the whirlwind, it is not in monarchies, or aristocracies, or democracies, but will be revealed by the still small voice that speaks to the conscience and the heart, prompting us to a wider and wiser humanity.
“Jove weighs affairs of earth in dubious scales,
And the good suffers, while the bad prevails.”
VI. 188 (tr. Alexander Pope).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)
Kalki : or The Future of Civilization (1929)
Context: War with its devastated fields and ruined cities, with its millions of dead and more millions of maimed and wounded, its broken-hearted and defiled women and its starved children bereft of their natural protection, its hate and atmosphere of lies and intrigue, is an outrage on all that is human. So long as this devil-dance does not disgust us, we cannot pretend to be civilized. It is no good preventing cruelty to animals and building hospitals for the sick and poor houses for the destitute so long as we willing to mow down masses of men by machine-guns and poison non-combatants, including the aged and the infirm, women and children — and all for what? For the glory of God and the honour of the nation!
It is quite true that we attempt to regulate war, as we cannot suppress it; but the attempt cannot succeed. For war symbolizes the spirit of strife between two opposing national units which is to be settled by force. When we allow the use of force as the only argument to put down opposition, we cannot rightly discriminate between one kind of force and another. We must put down opposition by mobilizing all the forces at our disposal. There is no real difference between a stick and a sword, or gunpowder and poison gas. So long as it is the recognized method of putting down opposition, every nation will endeavour to make its destructive weapons more and more efficient. War is its only law add the highest virtue is to win, and every nation has to tread this terrific and deadly road. To approve of warfare but criticize its methods, it has been well said is like approving of the wolf eating the lamb but criticizing the table-manners. War is war and not a game of sport to be played according to rules.