From Mill's 1850 essay, 'The Negro Question'. The law of the strongest. 'Your last month’s Number contains a speech against the “rights of Negroes,” the doctrines and spirit of which ought not to pass without remonstrance. The author issues his opinions, or rather ordinances, under imposing auspices, no less than those of the “immortal gods.” … Continue reading John Stuart Mill on race and slavery
Hume on the tendency of religion to ascetic morality
"The duties, which a man performs as a friend or parent, seem merely owing to his benefactor or children; nor can he be wanting to these duties, without breaking through all the ties of nature and morality. A strong inclination may prompt him to the performance: A sentiment of order and moral obligation joins its … Continue reading Hume on the tendency of religion to ascetic morality
Socratic temperance 2
Socrates: "And when real philosophers consider all these things, will they not be led to make a reflection which they will express in words something like the following? ‘Have we not found,’ they will say, ‘a path of thought which seems to bring us and our argument to the conclusion, that while we are in … Continue reading Socratic temperance 2
Seneca on the Shortness of Life
The portion of life allotted to us, if rightly arranged, is sufficient. “We do not have a very short time assigned to us, but we lose a great deal of it: life is long enough to carry out the most important projects: we have an ample portion, if we do but arrange the whole of … Continue reading Seneca on the Shortness of Life
English politicians described
Here let those reign, whom Pensions can inciteTo vote a Patriot black, a Courtier white; Explain their Country's dear-bought Rights away,And plead for Pirates in the Face of Day;With slavish Tenets taint our poison'd Youth,And lend a Lye the Confidence of Truth. – Samuel Johnson, London (1738).
Socratic temperance
Socrates: "he who desires to be happy must pursue and practise temperance and run away from intemperance as fast as his legs will carry him: he had better order his life so as not to need punishment; but if either he or any of his friends, whether private individual or city, are in need of … Continue reading Socratic temperance
Seneca to Lucilius on the length and quality of life
"We should strive, not to live long, but to live rightly; for to achieve long life you have need of Fate only, but for right living you need the soul. A life is really long if it is a full life; but fulness is not attained until the soul has rendered to itself its proper … Continue reading Seneca to Lucilius on the length and quality of life
Swift on lawyers
"I said, there was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth, in the art of proving by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people are slaves … It is likewise to … Continue reading Swift on lawyers
Despise death; flee not from life.
From Seneca's twenty-fourth letter to Lucilius. "You write me that you are anxious about the result of a lawsuit, with which an angry opponent is threatening you; and you expect me to advise you to picture to yourself a happier issue, and to rest in the allurements of hope. Why, indeed, is it necessary to … Continue reading Despise death; flee not from life.
From Seneca’s consolation to Marcia
"Plague on it! what madness this is, to punish one's self because one is unfortunate, and not to lessen, but to increase one's ills! You ought to display, in this matter also, that decent behaviour and modesty which has characterised all your life: for there is such a thing as self-restraint in grief also. You … Continue reading From Seneca’s consolation to Marcia
Notes in the Margins of the Days 