
Vice and Virtue, iii
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part II - Elementary Morality
Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 20, “The Otherwhere Marble” (p. 274)
Vice and Virtue, iii
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part II - Elementary Morality
“Sometimes my mouth is a little too big and a little too open and sounds too much like a sailor.”
“None are so likely to believe too little as those who have begun by believing too much.”
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), IV : The Essence of Catholicism
Context: ... as the great Unitarian preacher Channing pointed out, that in France and Spain there are multitudes who have proceeded from rejecting Popery to absolute atheism, because "the fact is, that false and absurd doctrines, when exposed, have a natural tendency to beget skepticism in those who receive them without reflection. None are so likely to believe too little as those who have begun by believing too much." Here is, indeed, the terrible danger of believing too much. But no! the terrible danger comes from another quarter — from seeking to believe with the reason and not with the life.
“The world has far too much morality.”
p 474
The Better Angels of our Nature (2011)
“Sweet words are like honey, a little may refresh, but too much gluts the stomach.”
“I like you, but not too much. I don’t want to like anybody too much.”
Source: The Moral Judgment of the Child (1932), Ch. 2 : Adult Constraint and Moral Realism <!-- p. 185 -->
Context: The majority of parents are poor psychologists and give their children the most questionable moral trainings. It is perhaps in this domain that one realized most how keenly how immoral it can be to believe too much in morality, and how much more precious is a little humanity than all the rules in the world. Thus the adult leads the child to the notion of objective responsibility, and consolidates in consequence a tendency that is already natural to the spontaneous mentality of little children.