“There is a strange duality in the human which makes for an ethical paradox.”

—  John Steinbeck , book The Log from the Sea of Cortez

Source: The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951), Chapter 11
Context: There is a strange duality in the human which makes for an ethical paradox. We have definitions of good qualities and of bad; not changing things, but generally considered good and bad throughout the ages and throughout the species. Of the good, we think always of wisdom, tolerance, kindliness, generosity, humility; and the qualities of cruelty, greed, self-interest, graspingness, and rapacity are universally considered undesirable. And yet in our structure of society, the so-called and considered good qualities are invariable concomitants of failure, while the bad ones are the cornerstones of success. A man — a viewing-point man — while he will love the abstract good qualities and detest the abstract bad, will nevertheless envy and admire the person who though possessing the bad qualities has succeeded economically and socially, and will hold in contempt that person whose good qualities have caused failure. When such a viewing-point man thinks of Jesus or St. Augustine or Socrates he regards them with love because they are the symbols of the good he admires, and he hates the symbols of the bad. But actually he would rather be successful than good. In an animal other than man we would replace the term “good” with “weak survival quotient” and the term “bad” with “strong survival quotient.” Thus, man in his thinking or reverie status admires the progression toward extinction, but in the unthinking stimulus which really activates him he tends toward survival. Perhaps no other animal is so torn between alternatives. Man might be described fairly adequately, if simply, as a two-legged paradox. He has never become accustomed to the tragic miracle of consciousness. Perhaps, as has been suggested, his species is not set, has not jelled, but is still in a state of becoming, bound by his physical memories to a past of struggle and survival, limited in his futures by the uneasiness of thought and consciousness.

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 "There is a strange duality in the human which makes for an ethical paradox." by John Steinbeck?
John Steinbeck photo
John Steinbeck 366
American writer 1902–1968

Related quotes

Javad Alizadeh photo

“It is a strange paradox: Humans drown in the water, fish drown in the land.”

Javad Alizadeh (1953) cartoonist, journalist and humorist

Quoted in Humor & Caricature (July 1995), p. 3

Eli Siegel photo

“There is a deep and "dialectic" duality facing every human being, which can be put this way: How is he to be entirely himself, and yet be fair to that world which he does not see as himself?”

Eli Siegel (1902–1978) Latvian-American poet, philosopher

Self and World (1957)

Frank Herbert photo

“Technology is both a tool for helping humans and for destroying them. This is the paradox of our times which we're compelled to face.”

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer

"Conversations in Port Townsend," interview with Tim O'Reilly, 1983. Reprinted in The Maker of Dune: Insights of a Master of Science Fiction (1987), edited by Tim O'Reilly
General sources

Sam Harris photo

“Among the many paradoxes of human life, this is perhaps the most peculiar and consequential: We often behave in ways that are guaranteed to make us unhappy.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

Many of us spend our lives marching with open eyes toward remorse, regret, guilt, and disappointment. And nowhere do our injuries seem more casually self-inflicted, or the suffering we create more disproportionate to the needs of the moment, than in the lies we tell to other human beings. Lying is the royal road to chaos.
2010s, Lying (2011)

“No science of any kind can be divorced from ethical considerations… Science is a human learning process which arises in certain subcultures in human society and not in others, and a subculture as we seen is a group of people defined by acceptance of certain common values, that is, an ethic which permits extensive communication between them.”

Kenneth E. Boulding (1910–1993) British-American economist

Source: 1960s, Economics As A Moral Science, 1969, p. 2 cited in: John B. Davis (2011) Kenneth Boulding as a Moral Scientist http://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=econ_workingpapers Working paper

Johnny Depp photo

“People say I make strange choices, but they’re not strange for me. My sickness is that I’m fascinated by human behavior, by what’s underneath the surface, by the worlds inside people.”

Johnny Depp (1963) American actor, film producer, and musician
J. Michael Bailey photo

“Homosexuality might be the most striking unresolved paradox of human evolution.”

J. Michael Bailey book The Man Who Would Be Queen

Source: The Man Who Would Be Queen (2003), Homosexuality, p. 115

George W. Bush photo

“Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical…”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Speaking regarding his veto of the most recent stem cell research bill http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/06/20070620-8.html (June 20, 2007)
2000s, 2007

Mohammed Alkobaisi photo

“Ethic is the core of humanity and the foundation of civilization.”

Mohammed Alkobaisi (1970) Iraqi Islamic scholar

Understanding Islam, "Morals and Ethics" http://vod.dmi.ae/media/96716/Ep_03_Morals_and_Ethics Dubai Media

Albert Einstein photo

“Without "ethical culture," there is no salvation for humanity.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

"The Need for Ethical Culture" celebrating the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Ethical Culture Society, founded by Felix Adler (5 January 1951) (the full remarks can be found in Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein and Carl Seelig http://books.google.com/books?id=UppFAAAAYAAJ)
1950s
Context: I believe, indeed, that overemphasis on the purely intellectual attitude, often directed solely to the practical and factual, in our education, has led directly to the impairment of ethical values. I am not thinking so much of the dangers with which technical progress has directly confronted mankind, as of the stifling of mutual human considerations by a "matter-of-fact" habit of thought which has come to lie like a killing frost upon human relations. … The frightful dilemma of the political world situation has much to do with this sin of omission on the part of our civilization. Without "ethical culture," there is no salvation for humanity.

Related topics