“All moral doctrine, all practical suggestions about how we ought to live, depend on some belief about what human nature is like.”
Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature (1979).
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Mary Midgley 42
British philosopher and ethicist 1919–2018Related quotes

My bright idea: Civilisation is still worth striving for

Original: (it) Molti si sono immaginate Repubbliche e Principati, che non si sono mai visti nè cognosciuti essere in vero; perchè egli è tanto discosto da come si vive, a come si doveria vivere, che colui che lascia quello che si fa per quello che si doveria fare, impara piuttosto la rovina, che la preservazione sua.
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 15; translated by W. K. Marriot

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (1986)
Context: All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sand pile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned. These are the things you already know: