
“Reason shows us our duty; he who can make us love our duty is more powerful than reason itself.”
No. 15.
Maxims and Moral Sentences
Speech to the Bar Association of Boston, in Speeches (1913), p. 85.
1910s
“Reason shows us our duty; he who can make us love our duty is more powerful than reason itself.”
No. 15.
Maxims and Moral Sentences
Source: The Man Who Never Missed (1985), Chapter 15 (p. 132)
Sec. 13
The Gay Science (1882)
Liberty vs Socialism
Context: There is no moral argument that justifies using the coercive powers of government to force one person to bear the expense of taking care of another. If that person is too resolute in his refusal to do so, what is the case for imposing fines, imprisonment or death? You say, "Death! Aren't you exaggerating, Williams?" Say he tells the agents of Congress that he'll pay his share of the constitutionally mandated functions of government but refuse to pay the health costs of a sick obese person or a cyclist who becomes a vegetable, what do you think the likely course of events will be? First, he'd be threatened with fines, imprisonment or property confiscation. Refusal to give in to these government sanctions would ultimately lead to his being shot by the agents of Congress.
Tomaszewski J. Kresy Wschodnie w polskiej myśli politycznej XIX i XX w.//Między Polską etniczną a historyczną. Polska myśl polityczna XIX i XX wieku.—T.6.—Warszawa, 1988.—S.101. Cited through: Oleksandr Derhachov (editor), "Ukrainian Statehood in the Twentieth Century: Historical and Political Analysis", 1996, Kiev
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 201.