“Any virtue systematically applied becomes a vice. Morality is attention, not system.”
#398
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays (2001)
"A Defence of Humilities"
The Defendant (1901)
“Any virtue systematically applied becomes a vice. Morality is attention, not system.”
#398
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays (2001)
“Never have so many been manipulated so much by so few.”
Source: Brave New World Revisited (1958), Chapter 3 (pp. 19-20)
“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.
Source: A History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne (1869), Chapter 5 (3rd edition p. 303)
Source: Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics
As quoted by J. E. Müller, Le Fauvisme, Paris, Hazan, 1956, p. 92
The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity (2019)