Before the sacred, people lost all sense of power and all confidence; they occupy a powerless and humble attitude toward it. And yet no thing is sacred of itself, but by declaring it sacred, by my declaration, my judgment, my bending the knee; in short, by my – conscience.
Category Archive: 1806
Pleasure and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends.
That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavouring to stifle is a false opinion; and even if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.
He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.
A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.
Grudge no expense – yield to no opposition – forget fatigue – till, by the strength of prayer and sacrifice, the spirit of love shall have overcome .
The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
All desirable things… are desirable either for the pleasure inherent in themselves, or as a means to the promotion of pleasure and the prevention of pain.