“The desire to vanquish faults because it is "I" who have them is ineffectual, since it falls within the same category as the faults themselves. Indeed, every fault is a form of egoism or even pride. We must tend towards Perfection because we understand it and therefore love it, and not because we desire that our ego should be perfect. In other terms, we must love and realize a virtue because it is true and beautiful, and not because it would become us if we possessed it; and we must hate and fight against a fault because it is false and ugly, and not because it is ours and because it disfigures us. To possess a virtue is first and foremost to be without the fault which is contrary to it, for God created us virtuous. He created us in His image; faults are superimposed. Moreover it is not we who possess virtue, it is virtue which possesses us.”

[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 65, 978-1-93659700-0]
Spiritual path, Virtue

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 17, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The desire to vanquish faults because it is "I" who have them is ineffectual, since it falls within the same category a…" by Frithjof Schuon?
Frithjof Schuon photo
Frithjof Schuon 82
Swiss philosopher 1907–1998

Related quotes

Matt Taibbi photo
Frithjof Schuon photo

“If we must love God, and love him more than ourselves and our neighbor, it is because love exists before us and because we are issued from it; we love by virtue of our very existence.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2005, Stations of Wisdom, World Wisdom, 94, 978-0-94153218-1]
God, Reverential fear and love

Sadhguru photo

“Our lives become beautiful not because we are perfect.”

Sadhguru (1957) Yogi, mystic, visionary and humanitarian

Isha Insights Magazine, Spring Edition 2009
Sourced from newspapers and magazines
Context: Our lives become beautiful not because we are perfect. Our lives become beautiful because we put our heart into what we are doing. -Sadhguru

Fernando Pessoa photo

“We adore perfection because we can't have it; it would disgust us if we had it. Perfect is inhuman, because human is imperfect.”

Ibid., p. 249
Original: Adoramos a perfeição, porque não a podemos ter; repugná-la-íamos, se a tivéssemos. O perfeito é o desumano, porque o humano é imperfeito.
Source: The Book of Disquiet

Rudyard Kipling photo

“It was our fault, and our very great fault—and now we must turn it to use.
We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

The Lesson, Stanza 8 (1899-1902).
Other works

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch photo

“Why should we hate the people we once loved because of a war that mars even our memories?”

Lamia Abbas (1929–2021) Iraqi poet

Source: Frouzanda Mahrad (an Arabic poem, translated by Mike Maggio in: Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2002). The Mandaeans: ancient texts and modern people. New York: Oxford University Press.)

Derren Brown photo

Related topics