Observations on the Drawing Up of Laws (1774)
Context: In any country where talent and virtue produce no advancement, money will be the national god. Its inhabitants will either have to possess money or make others believe that they do. Wealth will be the highest virtue, poverty the greatest vice. Those who have money will display it in every imaginable way. If their ostentation does not exceed their fortune, all will be well. But if their ostentation does exceed their fortune they will ruin themselves. In such a country, the greatest fortunes will vanish in the twinkling of an eye. Those who don't have money will ruin themselves with vain efforts to conceal their poverty. That is one kind of affluence: the outward sign of wealth for a small number, the mask of poverty for the majority, and a source of corruption for all.
“There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country.”
The Freeholder, no. 5.
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Joseph Addison 226
politician, writer and playwright 1672–1719Related quotes
“No virtue is equal to the good of others and
no vice greater than hurting others.”
Tulsidas in "A Garden of Deeds: Ramacharitmanas, a Message of Human Ethics", p. 37
“We need greater virtues to sustain good than evil fortune.”
Il faut de plus grandes vertus pour soutenir la bonne fortune que la mauvaise.
Maxim 25.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
“There is no greater wealth than Virtue,
And no greater loss than to forget it.”
Verse IV.2
Tirukkural
“A state too expensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay”
Letter from Jamaica (Summer 1815)
Context: A state too expensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay; its free government is transformed into a tyranny; it disregards the principles which it should preserve, and finally degenerates into despotism. The distinguishing characteristic of small republics is stability: the character of large republics is mutability.
Cooper in Jeff Cooper's Commentaries January 1995, Vol. 3, No. 3.
“The only possible idea of India is that of a nation greater than the sum of its parts.”
The Hindu, "Strengthening Indianness ", Sunday, Jan 19, 2003, Available Online http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/2003/01/19/stories/2003011900240300.htm
2000s
"Letter to the Editor" The Times (22 July 1920) http://www.telstudies.org/writings/letters/1919-20/200722_the_times.shtml
Context: Whether they are fit for independence or not remains to be tried. Merit is no qualification for freedom. Bulgars, Afghans, and Tahitans have it. Freedom is enjoyed when you are so well armed, or so turbulent, or inhabit a country so thorny that the expense of your neighbour's occupying you is greater than the profit.
Source: The Principles of State and Government in Islam (1961), Chapter 1: The Issue Before Us, p 1
“[T]here is no greater sign of innate misery than a love of teasing.”
At Lady Molly's (1957), ch. 1.
A Dance to the Music of Time (1951-1975)