The law is a gun, which if it misses a pigeon always kills a crow; if it does not strike the guilty, it hits someone else. As every crime creates a law, so in turn every law creates a crime.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1St Baron LyttonRead
Revenge is a common passion; it is the sin of the uninstructed. The savage deems it noble;but the religion of Christ, which is the sublime civilizer, emphatically condemns it. Why? Because religion ever seeks to ennoble man; and nothing so debases him as revenge.
Interpretation
Revenge is seen as a primitive response that degrades humanity, while religious teachings advocate for noble virtues.
In this quote, Edward Bulwer-Lytton argues that revenge is a natural but destructive impulse, particularly favored by those lacking moral guidance. He contrasts the baseness of revenge with the dignifying principles found in religion, particularly Christianity, which encourages individuals to rise above primal instincts and pursue nobler paths that elevate humanity rather than degrade it.
In practice
During a lecture on ethics, to illustrate the dangers of seeking revenge.
The law is a gun, which if it misses a pigeon always kills a crow; if it does not strike the guilty, it hits someone else. As every crime creates a law, so in turn every law creates a crime.
The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.
There are two lives to each of us, the life of our actions, and the life of our minds and hearts. History reveals men's deeds and their outward characters, but not themselves. There is a secret self that has its own life, unpenetrated and unguessed.
A chord, stronger or weaker, is snapped asunder in every parting, and time's busy fingers are not practiced in re-splicing broken ties. Meet again you may; will it be in the same way? With the same sympathies? With the same sentiments? Will the souls, hurrying on in diverse paths, unite once more, as if the interval had been a dream? Rarely, rarely!
No author ever drew a character consistent to human nature, but he was forced to ascribe to it many inconsistencies.
Fate! There is no fate. Between the thought and the success God is the only agent. Fate is not the ruler, but the servant of Providence.
What I'm saying to you this morning is that Communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the Kingdom of Brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of Communism nor the antithesis of capitalism but in a higher synthesis.
God is a too palpably clumsy answer; an answer which shows a lack of delicacy towards us thinkers-fundamentally, even a crude prohibition to us: you shall not think!
I shall revenge myself in the cruelest way you can imagine. I shall forget it.
By ethical conduct toward all creatures, we enter into a spiritual relationship with the universe.
Why are people born? Why do they die? Why do they want to spend so much of the intervening time wearing digital watches?
Our emotions Are only “incidents” In the effort to keep day and night together.
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