“Humanity, morality, decency, might be forgotten, but codfish must still be had for the use of the faithful in Lent and on fast days.”
Pt. II, Ch. 2
Pioneers of France in the New World (1865)
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Francis Parkman 28
American historian 1823–1893Related quotes

Address The bell is ringing
Liberty-Equality-Fraternity (1942)


Section 9 : Ethical Outlook
Founding Address (1876), Life and Destiny (1913)
Context: Theologians often say that faith must come first, and that morality must be deduced from faith. We say that morality must come first, and faith, to those whose nature fits them to entertain it, will come out of the experience of a deepened moral life as its richest, choicest fruit.
Precisely because moral culture is the aim, we cannot be content merely to lift the mass of mankind above the grosser forms of evil. We must try to advance the cause of humanity by developing in ourselves, as well as in others, a higher type of manhood and womanhood than the past has known.
To aid in the evolution of a new conscience, to inject living streams of moral force into the dry veins of materialistic communities is our aim.
We seek to come into touch with the ultimate power in things, the ultimate peace in things, which yet, in any literal sense, we know well that we cannot know. We seek to become morally certain — that is, certain for moral purposes — of what is beyond the reach of demonstration. But our moral optimism must include the darkest facts that pessimism can point to, include them and transcend them.
Source: Chapter 1: The Misanthropic Argument for Anti-natalism https://books.google.com/books?id=J6dBCgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA44&pg=PA55#v=onepage&q&f=false, 2015, p. 55
Source: Permissible Progeny? The Morality of Procreation and Parenting (2015)
"Scotty: All the news that's fit to schmooze," The Weekly Standard, 24 February 2003

On her preference for issues that could be argued with from either side. nydailynews.com http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/popular-irish-author-maeve-binchy-dies-72-article-1.1125516?pgno=1

“I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time.”
Source: The Shadow of the Wind
“Be a sincere effort never so misguided, to laugh at it is a breach of faith with decency.”
Source: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 82