“What hurts society is not that it should lose its property, but that it should become a den of thieves, for then it must cease to be society.”

The Ethics of Belief (1877), The Duty of Inquiry
Context: A bad action is always bad at the time when it is done, no matter what happens afterwards. Every time we let ourselves believe for unworthy reasons, we weaken our powers of self-control, of doubting, of judicially and fairly weighing evidence. We all suffer severely enough from the maintenance and support of false beliefs and the fatally wrong actions which they lead to, and the evil born when one such belief is entertained is great and wide. But a greater and wider evil arises when the credulous character is maintained and supported, when a habit of believing for unworthy reasons is fostered and made permanent. If I steal money from any person, there may be no harm done from the mere transfer of possession; he may not feel the loss, or it may prevent him from using the money badly. But I cannot help doing this great wrong towards Man, that I make myself dishonest. What hurts society is not that it should lose its property, but that it should become a den of thieves, for then it must cease to be society. This is why we ought not to do evil, that good may come; for at any rate this great evil has come, that we have done evil and are made wicked thereby. In like manner, if I let myself believe anything on insufficient evidence, there may be no great harm done by the mere belief; it may be true after all, or I may never have occasion to exhibit it in outward acts. But I cannot help doing this great wrong towards Man, that I make myself credulous. The danger to society is not merely that it should believe wrong things, though that is great enough; but that it should become credulous, and lose the habit of testing things and inquiring into them; for then it must sink back into savagery.

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 "What hurts society is not that it should lose its property, but that it should become a den of thieves, for then it mus…" by William Kingdon Clifford?
William Kingdon Clifford photo
William Kingdon Clifford 48
English mathematician and philosopher 1845–1879

Related quotes

Roberto Mangabeira Unger photo
A. C. Grayling photo

“A civilized society is one which never ceases having a discussion with itself about what human life should best be.”

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), “Introduction” (p. xiii)

Benjamin Ricketson Tucker photo

“Socialism, on the contrary, extends its function to the description of society as it should be, and the discovery of the means of making it what it should be.”

Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (1854–1939) American journalist and anarchist

¶ 6
State Socialism and Anarchism: How Far They Agree, and Wherin They Differ (1888)
Context: The economic principles of Modern Socialism are a logical deduction from the principle laid down by Adam Smith in the early chapters of his “Wealth of Nations,” — namely, that labor is the true measure of price. But Adam Smith, after stating this principle most clearly and concisely, immediately abandoned all further consideration of it to devote himself to showing what actually does measure price, and how, therefore, wealth is at present distributed. Since his day nearly all the political economists have followed his example by confining their function to the description of society as it is, in its industrial and commercial phases. Socialism, on the contrary, extends its function to the description of society as it should be, and the discovery of the means of making it what it should be.

Eric Foner photo
Barney Frank photo

“In a free society a large degree of human activity is none of the government's business. We should make criminal what's going to hurt other people and other than that we should leave it to people to make their own choices.”

Barney Frank (1940) American politician, former member of the House of Representatives for Massachusetts

Frank commenting on legislation to remove federal criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use. CNN Newsroom : Rep. Barney Frank's Marijuana Bill http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0807/30/cnr.05.html (30 July 2008)]

“Should not the Society of Indexers be known as Indexers, Society of, The?”

Keith Waterhouse (1929–2009) British writer

Bookends (1990), cited from Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell; Mr. And Mrs. Nobody; and, Bookends (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992) p. 135

G. D. H. Cole photo

“A society that acquiesces in the presence in its midst of a vast permanent army of unemployed is a society that has ceased to believe in itself.”

G. D. H. Cole (1889–1959) British historian, economist, writer

The Next Ten Years in Economic and Social Policy (1929), p. 46

Zakir Naik photo

“The moment a robber sees a policeman he is terrified. A policeman is a terrorist for the robber. Similarly every Muslim should be a terrorist for the antisocial elements of society, such as thieves, dacoits [bandits] and rapists. Whenever such an anti-social element sees a Muslim, he should be terrified”

Zakir Naik (1965) Islamic televangelist

Context: [Clarifying statement above]: Every Muslim should be a terrorist. A terrorist is a person who causes terror. The moment a robber sees a policeman he is terrified. A policeman is a terrorist for the robber. Similarly every Muslim should be a terrorist for the antisocial elements of society, such as thieves, dacoits [bandits] and rapists. Whenever such an anti-social element sees a Muslim, he should be terrified. It is true that the word ‘terrorist’ is generally used for a person who causes terror among the common people. But a true Muslim should only be a terrorist to selective people, i. e. anti-social elements, and not to the common innocent people. In fact, a Muslim should be a source of peace for innocent people.

On Osama Bin Laden, October 1, 2009. http://barthsnotes.com/2013/05/26/spotlight-on-greenwich-university-islamic-society-in-wake-of-murder/

Hunter S. Thompson photo

“Tiny hurts people. When he loses his temper he goes completely out of control and his huge body becomes a lethal weapon. It is difficult to see what role he might play in the Great Society.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

1960s, Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (1966)

“Solitude shows us what should be; society shows us what we are.”

Richard Cecil (clergyman) (1748–1810) British Evangelical Anglican priest and social reformer

As quoted in Remains of Mr. Cecil (1836) edited by Josiah Pratt, p. 59.

Related topics