“The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice. Moral truisms have been so much disputed that they have begun to sparkle like so many brilliant paradoxes.”

"A Defence of Humilities"
The Defendant (1901)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice. Moral truisms have been so m…" by G. K. Chesterton?
G. K. Chesterton photo
G. K. Chesterton 229
English mystery novelist and Christian apologist 1874–1936

Related quotes

“Any virtue systematically applied becomes a vice. Morality is attention, not system.”

James Richardson (1950) American poet

#398
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays (2001)

Aldous Huxley photo

“Never have so many been manipulated so much by so few.”

Source: Brave New World Revisited (1958), Chapter 3 (pp. 19-20)

Miguel de Unamuno photo

“None are so likely to believe too little as those who have begun by believing too much.”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

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.

William Edward Hartpole Lecky photo

“There have certainly been many periods in history when virtue was more rare than under the Caesars; but there has probably never been a period when vice was more extravagant or uncontrolled.”

William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1838–1903) British politician

Source: A History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne (1869), Chapter 5 (3rd edition p. 303)

Jean de La Bruyère photo
Erich Fromm photo

“There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as 'moral indignation,' which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue.”

Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst

Source: Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics

Albert Marquet photo

“It has happened that I have begun a canvas in a brilliant tonality, going on to finish it in a grey notation. (1898)”

Albert Marquet (1875–1947) French artist

As quoted by J. E. Müller, Le Fauvisme, Paris, Hazan, 1956, p. 92

Constantine P. Cavafy photo
Frank Lloyd Wright photo
Douglas Murray photo

Related topics