“Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States
Letter to the Protestant Episcopal Church (19 August 1789) Scan at American Memory (Library of Congress). http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mgw/mgw2/038/0580042.jpg <br class="br">1780s
“Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States
Charles Lyell book Principles of Geology
Chpt.2, p. 8
Principles of Geology (1832), Vol. 1
Context: The marks of former convulsions on every part of the surface of our planet are obvious and striking. The remains of marine animals imbedded in the solid strata are so abundant, that they may be expected to force themselves on the observation of every people who have made some progress in refinement; and especially where one class of men are expressly set apart from the rest for study and contemplation.... Those modern writers, who are disposed to disparage the former intellectual advancement and civilization of eastern nations, might concede some foundation of observed facts for the curious theories now under consideration, without indulging in exaggerated opinions of the progress of science; especially as universal catastrophes of the world, and exterminations of organic beings, in the sense in which they were understood by the Brahmin, are untenable doctrines.
James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)
Federalist No. 10
1780s, Federalist Papers (1787–1788)
J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)
Source: Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis (1899), Egoism and Altruism, p. 92
Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan
The First Part, Chapter 11, p. 47.
Leviathan (1651)
Context: Felicity is a continual progress of the desire from one object to another, the attaining of the former being still but the way to the latter. The cause whereof is that the object of man's desire is not to enjoy once only, and for one instant of time, but to assure forever the way of his future desire. And therefore the voluntary actions and inclinations of all men tend not only to the procuring, but also to the assuring of a contented life, and differ only in the way, which ariseth partly from the diversity of passions in diverse men, and partly from the difference of the knowledge or opinion each one has of the causes which produce the effect desired.
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Sophie Scholl (1921–1943) White Rose member
Response to the closing question of whether she hadn't "indeed come to the conclusion that your conduct and the actions along with your brother and other persons in the present phase of the war should be seen as a crime against the community, but in particular against our troops fighting arduously in the east, that merits the severest sentence?" in the official examination transcripts (February 1943); Bundesarchiv Berlin, ZC 13267, Bd. 3 http://www.bpb.de/themen/5H3ZT3,3,0,Ausz%FCge_aus_den_Verh%F6rprotokollen_von_Sophie_Scholl.html#art3
Maimónides book The Guide for the Perplexed
Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.31
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist
A 10
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook A (1765-1770)