Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison.
Walter BagehotRead
The most melancholy of human reflections, perhaps, is that, on the whole, it is a question whether the benevolence of mankind does most good or harm.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote questions whether human kindness ultimately benefits or harms society.
Walter Bagehot reflects on the dual nature of human benevolence, suggesting that while acts of kindness and compassion are often viewed positively, they may also have unintended negative consequences. This creates a complex moral landscape where the impact of goodwill is hard to assess, prompting us to consider the true value of our intentions and actions in the broader context of human behavior.
Themes
BenevolenceHumanityGoodHarmReflection
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on ethics, this quote can be used to illustrate the complexities of moral actions.
More from Walter Bagehot
All quotes →It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.
Walter BagehotRead
War both needs and generates certain virtues; not the highest, but what may be called the preliminary virtues, as valor, veracity, the spirit of obedience, the habit of discipline. Any of these, and of others like them, when possessed by a nation, and no matter how generated, will give them a military advantage, and make them more likely to stay in the race of nations.
Walter BagehotRead
Efficiency in an assembly requires a solid mass of steady votes; and these are collected by a deferential attachment to particular men, or by a belief in the principles that those men represent, and they are maintained by fear of those men - by the fear that if you vote against them, you may soon yourself have no vote at all.
Walter BagehotRead
Life is a compromise of what your ego wants to do, what experience tells you to do, and what your nerves let you do.
Walter BagehotRead
Every banker knows that if he has to prove that he is worthy of credit, however good may be his arguments, in fact his credit is gone: but what we have requires no proof.
Walter BagehotRead
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People will then often say, 'But surely it's better to remain an Agnostic just in case?' This, to me, suggests such a level of silliness and muddle that I usually edge out of the conversation rather than get sucked into it. (If it turns out that I've been wrong all along, and there is in fact a god, and if it further turned out that this kind of legalistic, cross-your-fingers-behind-your-back, Clintonian hair-splitting impressed him, then I think I would choose not to worship him anyway.)
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For too long in this society, we have celebrated unrestrained individualism over common community.
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What could you say to a dying person that would not enrage by its triviality?
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Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.
Bertrand RussellRead