CB 55
Thomas Day: The Dying Negro
"--O my lov'd bride! -- for I have call'd thee mine, Dearer than life, whom I with life resign, For thee ev'n here this faithful heart shall glow, A pang shall rend me, and a tear shall flow."
Voltaire: Candide
". . . [W]hen they were not arguing, the boredom was so fierce that one day the old woman ventured to say: —I should like to know which is worse, being raped a hundred times by negro pirates, having a buttock cut off, running the gauntlet in the Bulgar army, being flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fé, being dissected and rowing in the galleys—experiencing, in a word, all the miseries through which we have passed—or else just sitting here and doing nothing? —It's a hard question, said Candide. These words gave rise to new reflections, and Martin in particular concluded that man was bound to live either in convulsions of misery or in the lethargy of boredom."
Benjamin Franklin: A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge Among the British Plantations in America
"...all philosophical experiments that let light into the nature of things, tend to increase the power of man over matter, and multiply the conveniences or pleasures of life."
David Hume: Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences
"...that though the only proper Nursery of these noble plants be a free state; yet may they be transplanted into any government; and that a republic is most favourable to the growth of the sciences, a civilized monarchy to that of the polite arts."
Kant: What is Enlightenment?
"A high degree of civil freedom seems advantageous to a people's intellectual freedom, yet it also sets up insuperable barriers to it. Conversely, a lesser degree of civil freedom gives intellectual freedom enough room to expand to its fullest extent."
Voltaire: Candide
"A hundred times I wanted to kill myself, but always I loved life more. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our worst instincts; is anything more stupid than choosing a carry a burden that really one wants to cast on the ground? To hold existence in horror, and yet to cling to it? to fondle the serpent which devours us till it has eaten out our heart? —In the countries through which I have been forced to wander, in the taverns where I have had to work, I have seen a vast number of people who hated their existence; but I never saw more than a dozen who deliberately put an end to their own misery."
David Hume: Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences
"A man is lord in his own family, and his guests are, in a manner, subject to his authority: Hence, he is always the lowest person in the company; attentive to the wants of every one; and giving himself all the trouble, in order to please, which may not betray too visible an affectation, or impose too much constraint on his guests."
Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations
"A man of rank and fortune is by his station the distinguished member of a great society, who attend to every part of his conduct, and who thereby oblige him to attend to every part of his conduct... A man of low condition..."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"A moderate government may, whenever it pleases, and without the least danger, relax its springs. It supports itself by the laws, and by its own internal strength. But when a despotic prince ceases for one single moment to uplift his arm, when he cannot instantly demolish those whom he has entrusted with the first employments, all is over: for as fear, the spring of this government, no longer subsists, the people are left without a protector."
George Washington: Farewell Address
"A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils."
Madison: Federalist 10
"A pure democracy... can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole... there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual."
James Thomson: A Poem Sacred to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton
"ALL intellectual eye, our SOLAR ROUND First gazing thro', he by the blended power Of GRAVITATION and PROJECTION saw The whole in silent harmony revolve."
James Thomson: A Poem Sacred to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton
"AND you, ye hopeless gloomy-minded tribe, You who, unconscious of those nobler flights That reach impatient at immortal life, Against the prime endearing privilege Of Being dare content, say, can a soul Of such extensive, deep, tremendous powers, Enlarging still, be but a finer breath Of spirits dancing thro' their tubes awhile, And then for ever lost in vacant air?"
Locke: Some Thoughts Concerning Education
"Above all, take great care that he seldom, if ever, taste any wine, or strong drink. There is nothing so ordinarily given children in England, and nothing so destructive to them."
Adam Smith: Theory of Moral Sentiments
"Actions of a beneficent tendency, which proceed from proper motives, seem alone to require reward; because such alone are the approved objects of gratitude, or excite the sympathetic gratitude of the spectator. Actions of a hurtful tendency, which proceed from improper motives, seem alone to deserve punishment; because such alone are the approved objects of resentment, or excite the sympathetic resentment of the spectator."
Alexander Pope: An Essay on Man
"All nature is but art, unknown to thee; All chance, direction, which thou canst not see; All discord, harmony not understood; All partial evil, universal good: And, spite of pride in erring reason's spite, One truth is clear, whatever is, is right."
George Washington: Farewell Address
"All obstructions to the execution of the laws...They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force."
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason
"All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason."
Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations
"All systems either of preference or of restraint, therefore, being thus completely taken away, the obvious and simple system of natural liberty establishes itself of its own accord. Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way, and to bring both his industry and capital into competition with those of any other man, or order of men."
Kant: What is Enlightenment?
"All that is required for this enlightenment is freedom; and particularly the least harmful of all that may be called freedom, namely, the freedom for man to make public use of his reason in all matters"
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason
"All thought must, directly or indirectly, by way of certain characters, relate ultimately to intuitions, and therefore, with us, to sensibility, because in no other way can an object be given to us."
Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with the Colonies
"America, gentlemen say, is a noble object. It is an object well worth fighting for. Certainly it is, if fighting a people be the best way of gaining them."
Thomas Day: The Dying Negro
"And better in th'untimely grave to rot, The world and its all its cruelties forgot, Than, dragg'd once more beyond the Western main, To groan beneath some dastard planter's chain, Where my poor countrymen in bondage wait The slow enfranchisement of ling'ring fate."
Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
"And from the attributes of God, his infinite wisdom, goodness and power, concluded that nothing could possibly be wrong in the world, and that vice and virtue were empty distractions, no such things existing, appeared now not so clever a performance as I once thought i; and I doubted whether some error had not insinuated itself unperceived into my argument, so as to infect all that followed, as is common in metaphysical reasonings."
Adam Smith: Theory of Moral Sentiments
"And hence it is, that to feel much for others and little for ourselves, that to restrain our selfish, and to indulge our benevolent affections, constitutes the perfection of human nature; and can alone produce among mankind that harmony of sentiments and passions in which consists their whole grace and propriety. As to love our neighbor as we love ourselves is the great law of Christianity, so it is the great precept of nature to love ourselves only as we love our neighbor, or what comes to the same thing, as our neighbor is capable of loving us..."
Hobbes: Leviathan
"And in him consisteth the Essence of the Common-wealth; which (to define it,) is One person, of whose Acts a great Multitude, by mutuall Covenants one with another, have made themselves every one the Author, to the end he may use the strength and means of them all, as he shall think expedient, for their Peace and Common Defence. And he that carryeth this Person, is called SOVERAIGNE, and said to have Soveraigne Power; and every one besides, his SUBJECT."
Hannah More: The Slave Trade
"And thou, White Savage! whether lust of gold, Or lust of conquest, rule thee uncontrol'd! Hero, or robber!-by whatever name Thou plead thy impious claim to wealth or fame"
Thomas Day: The Dying Negro
"And thou, whose impious avarice and pride The holy Cross to my sad brows den'yd, Forbade me Nature's common rights to claim, Or share with thee a Christian's sacred name; Thou too farewel! -- for not beyond the grave Extends thy pow'r, nor is my dust they slave."
John Locke: Two Treatises of Government
"And thus every man, by consenting with others to make one body politic under one government, puts himself under an obligation to every one of that society to submit to the determination of the majority, and to be concluded by it; or else this original compact, whereby he with others incorporates into one society, would signify nothing, and be no compact if he be left free and under no other ties than he was in before in the state of Nature."
James Thomson: A Poem Sacred to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton
"And what new wonders can ye show your guest! Who, while on this dim spot, where mortals toil Clouded in dust, from MOTION's simple laws, Could trace the secret hand of PROVIDENCE, Wide-working thro' this universal frame."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"Aristocracy is corrupted if the power of the nobles becomes arbitrary... The extremity of corruption is when the power of the nobles becomes hereditary; for then they can hardly have any moderation."
Thomas Day: The Dying Negro
"Arm'd with thy sad last gift -- the pow'r to die, Thy shafts, stern fortune, now I can defy; Thy dreadful mercy points at length the shore, Where all is peace, and men are slaves no more;"
Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations
"As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it."
Rousseau: The Social Contract
"As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State "What does it matter to me?" the State may be given up for lost."
Edmund Burke: On Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland
"As to religion, it has nothing at all to do with the proceeding. Liberty is not sacrificed to a zeal for religion, but a zeal for religion is pretended and assumed to destroy liberty. The Catholic religion is completely free. It has no establishment, but it is recognized, permitted, and, in a degree, protected by the laws."
Rousseau: Discourse on the Sciences and Arts
"Astronomy was born of superstition; eloquence of ambition, hatred, falsehood, and flattery; geometry of avarice; physics of an idle curiosity; and even moral philosophy of human pride. Thus the arts and sciences owe their birth to our vices."
Alexander Pope: An Essay on Man
"Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things To low ambition, and the pride of kings. Let us (since life can little more supply Than just to look about us and to die) Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man; A mighty maze! but not without a plan;"
Jefferson: Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
"Be it enacted by General Assembly that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer... of his religious opinions or belief"
Rousseau: Discourse on the Sciences and Arts
"Before art had moulded our behaviour, and taught our passions to speak an artificial language, our morals were rude but natural; and the different ways in which we behaved proclaimed at the first glance the difference of our dispositions. Human nature was not at bottom better then than now; but men found their security in the ease with which they could see through one another, and this advantage, of which we no longer feel the value, prevented their having many vices."
Rousseau: Discourse on the Sciences and Arts
"Before that time the Romans were satisfied with the practice of virtue; they were undone when they began to study it"
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason - of the impossibility of an ontological proof of the existence of God
"Being is evidently not a real predicate...logically, it is merely the copula of a judgment".
James Thomson: A Poem Sacred to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton
"Blaz'd into SUNs, the living centre each Of an harmonious system: all combin'd, And rul'd unerring by that single Power, Which draws the stone projected to the ground."
Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
"But how shall we excuse the supine inattention of the Pagan and philosophic world to those evidences which were presented by the hand of Omnipotence, not to their reason, but to their senses? During the age of Christ, of his apostles, and their first disciples, the doctrine which they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The lame walked, the blind saw, the sick were healed, the dead were raised, daemons were expelled, and the laws of Nature were frequently suspended for the benefit of the church."
George Washington: Farewell Address
"But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it."
Edmund Burke: On Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland
"But it will be said, in that country some people are free. Why, this is the very description of despotism. Partial freedom is privilege and prerogative, and not liberty. Liberty, such as deserves the name, is an honest, equitable, diffusive, and impartial principle. It is a great and enlarged virtue, and not a sordid, selfish and illiberal vice. It is the portion of the mass of the citizens, and not the haughty license of some potent individual or some predominant faction."
Locke: A Letter Concerning Toleration
"But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression."
George Washington: Farewell Address
"But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interests. ...carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole."
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
"But what I chiefly admired, and thought altogether unaccountable, was the strong disposition I observed in them towards news and politics, perpetually inquiring into public affairs, giving their judgments in matters of state, and passionately disputing every inch of a party opinion. I have indeed observed the same disposition among most of the mathematicians I have known in Europe, although I could never discover the least analogy between the two sciences."
Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
"But what have women to do in society? I may be asked, but to loiter with easy grace; surely you would not condemn them all to suckle fools and chronicle small beer! No. Women might certainly study the art of healing, and be physicians as well as nurses... They might also study politics... business of various kinds they might likewise pursue, if they were educated in a more orderly manner, which might save many from common and legal prostitution."
Locke: A Letter Concerning Toleration
"But what if he neglect the care of his soul? I answer: What if he neglect the care of his health or of his estate, which things are nearlier related to the government of the magistrate than the other? Will the magistrate provide by an express law that such a one shall not become poor or sick? Laws provide, as much as is possible, that the goods and health of subjects be not injured by the fraud and violence of others; they do not guard them from the negligence or ill-husbandry of the possessors themselves. No man can be forced to be rich or healthful whether he will or no. Nay, God Himself will not save men against their wills."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"But when the nation is poor, private poverty springs from the general calamity, and is, if I may so express myself, the general calamity itself. All the hospitals in the world cannot cure this private poverty; on the contrary, the spirit of indolence, which it constantly inspires, increases the general, and consequently the private, misery."
Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
"But, the private or public virtue of woman is very problematical; for Rousseau, and a numerous list of male writers, insist that she should all her life be subjected to a severe restraint, that of propriety."
Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
"But, to render her really virtuous and useful, she must not, if she discharge her civil duties, want, individually, the protection of civil laws; she must not be dependent on her husband's bounty for her subsistence during his life or support after his death -- for how can a being be generous who has nothing of its own? or virtuous, who is not free?"
Madison: Federalist 10
"By enlarging too much the number of electors, you render the representatives too little acquainted with all their local circumstances and lesser interests; as by reducing it too much, you render him unduly attached to these, and too little fit to comprehend and pursue great and national objects. The federal Constitution forms a happy combination in this respect; the great and aggregate interests being referred to the national, the local and particular to the State legislatures."
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
"By this oblique motion, the island is conveyed to different parts of the monarch's dominions. To explain the manner of its progress, let A B represent a line drawn across the dominions of Balnibarbi, let the line c d represent the loadstone, of which let d be the repelling end, and c the attracting end, the island being over C: let the stone be placed in position c d, with its repelling end downwards; then the island will be driven upwards obliquely towards D."
Locke: Some Thoughts Concerning Education
"Children should from the beginning be bred up in an abhorrence of killing or tormenting any living creature; and be taught not to spoil or destroy any thing, unless it be for the preservation or advantage of some other that is nobler."
U.S. Bill of Rights
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason - of the impossibility of an cosmological proof of the existence of God
"Contingent things exist - at least I exist; and as they are not self-caused, nor capable of explanation as an infinite series, it is requisite to infer that a necessary being, on whom they depend, exists."
Hobbes: Leviathan
"Covenants, without the sword, are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all."
Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther
"Daura, my daughter, you were beautiful as the moon on the hills of Fura, white as the fallen snow, sweet as the breathing air. Arindal, your bow was strong, your spear quick in the field, your eyes like mist on the waves, your shield a cloud of fire in the storm-wind."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"Democracy has, therefore, two excesses to avoid -- the spirit of inequality, which leads to aristocracy or monarchy, and the spirit of extreme equality, which leads to despotic power, as the latter is completed by conquest."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"Democratic and aristocratic states are not in their own nature free. Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments; and even in these it is not always found. It is there only when there is no abuse of power."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"Despotic governments, where there are no fundamental laws, have no such kind of depositary. Hence it is that religion has generally so much influence in those countries, because it forms a kind of permanent depositary; and if this cannot be said of religion, it may of the customs that are respected instead of laws."
Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
"Destructive, however, as riches and inherited honours are to the human character, women are more debased and cramped, if possible, by them than men, because men may still, in some degree, unfold their faculties by becoming soldiers and statesmen."
Thomas Day: The Dying Negro
"Did not my pray'rs, my groans, my tears invoke Your slumb'ring justice to direct the stroke? No pow'r descended to assist the brave, No light'nings flash'd, and I became a slave."
Hannah More: The Slave Trade
"Disperse her shades of intellectual night, Repeat thy high behest -- Let there be light! Bring each benighted soul, great God, to Thee, And with thy wide salvation make them free!"
Kant: What is Enlightenment?
"Enlightenment is man's leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's intelligence without the guidance of another"
Edmund Burke: On Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland
"Every man has his taste; but I think, if I were so miserable and undone as to be guilty of premeditated and continued violence towards any set of men, I had rather that my conduct was supposed to arise from wild conceits concerning their religious advantages than from low and ungenerous motives relative to my own selfish interest."
Rousseau: The Social Contract
"Every man having been born free and master of himself, no one else may under any pretext whatever subject him without his consent. To assert that the son of a slave is born a slave is to assert that he is not born a man."
George Washington: Farewell Address
"Every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater resource, greater security..."
Madison: Federalist 10
"Extend the sphere, and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens"
Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
"False, indeed, must be the light when the drapery of situation hides the man, and makes him stalk in masquerade, dragging from one scene of dissipation to another the nerveless limbs that hang with stupid listlessness, and rolling round the vacant eye which plainly tells us that there is no mind at home."
Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with the Colonies
"First, the people of the colonies are descendants of Englishmen. England, Sir, is a nation, which still I hope respects, and formerly adored, her freedom. The colonists emigrated from you when this part of your character was most predominant; and they took this bias and direction the moment they parted from your hands. They are therefore not only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas, and on English principles."
Thomas Day: The Dying Negro
"For all the wrongs which innocent I share, For all I've suffer'd, and for all I dare; O lead me to that spot, that sacred shore, Where souls are free, and men oppress no more!"
Hobbes: Leviathan
"For by Art is created that great LEVIATHAN called a COMMON-WEALTH, or STATE, (in latine CIVITAS) which is but an Artificiall Man; though of greater stature and strength than the Naturall, for whose protection and defence it was intended; and in which, the Soveraignty is an Artificiall Soul, as giving life and motion to the whole body;"
Hobbes: Leviathan
"For if we could suppose a great Multitude of men to consent in the observation of Justice, and other Lawes of Nature, without a common Power to keep them all in awe; we might as well suppose all Man-kind to do the same; and then there neither would be, nor need to be any Civill Government, or Common-wealth at all; because there would be Peace without subjection."
Locke: A Letter Concerning Toleration
"For the civil government can give no new right to the church, nor the church to the civil government. So that, whether the magistrate join himself to any church, or separate from it, the church remains always as it was before — a free and voluntary society. It neither requires the power of the sword by the magistrate's coming to it, nor does it lose the right of instruction and excommunication by his going from it. This is the fundamental and immutable right of a spontaneous society — that it has power to remove any of its members who transgress the rules of its institution; but it cannot, by the accession of any new members, acquire any right of jurisdiction over those that are not joined with it."
Hobbes: Leviathan
"For what reason go men armed, and have locks and keys to fasten their doors, if they be not naturally in a state of war?"
Montesquieu: Spirit of the Laws (on Roman Decline)
"Free states do not endure as long as others. The reason is that their misfortunes and successes both contribute to their loss of liberty, whereas in a state where the people is not free, successes and misfortunes both confirm its servitude. A wise republic should hazard nothing that might make it subject to either good or bad fortune; the only good to which it should aspire is its own indefinite continuance."
James Thomson: A Poem Sacred to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton
"From LIGHT HIMSELF; Oh look with pity down On humankind, a frail erroneous race! Exalt the spirit of a downward world! O'er thy dejected country chief preside, And be her GENIUS call'd! her studies raise, Correct her manners, and inspire her youth."
Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations
"From shopkeepers, tradesmen, and attorneys, they are become statesmen and legislators, and are employed in contriving a new form of government for an extensive empire, which, they flatter themselves, will become, and which, indeed, seems very likely to become, one of the greatest and most formidable that ever was in the world."
Hobbes: Leviathan
"From this equality of ability, ariseth equality of hope in the attaining of our Ends. And therefore if any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies; and in the way to their End, (which is principally their owne conservation, and sometimes their delectation only,) endeavour to destroy, or subdue one another."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"God is related to the universe, as Creator and Preserver; the laws by which He created all things are those by which He preserves them. He acts according to these rules, because He knows them; He knows them, because He made them; and He made them, because they are in relation to His wisdom and power."
David Hume: Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences
"Greece was a cluster of little principalities which soon became republics; and being united both by their near neighbourhood, and by the ties of the same language and interest, they entered into the closest intercourse of commerce and learning. There concurred a happy climate, a soil not unfertile, and a most harmonious and comprehensive language; so that every circumstance among the people seemed to favour the rise of the arts and sciences."
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
"He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers."
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
"He said, he knew no Reason, why those who entertain Opinions prejudicial to the Publick, should be obliged to change, or should not be obliged to conceal them. And, as it was Tyranny in any Government to require the first, so it was Weakness not to enforce the second."
Locke: Some Thoughts Concerning Education
"He that has not a mastery over his inclinations, he that knows not how to resist the importunity of present pleasure or pain, for the sake of what reason tells him is fit to be done, wants the true principle of virtue and industry; and is in danger never to be good for anything."
Alexander Pope: Essay on Man, Epistle I
"Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of Fate, All but the page prescrib'd, their present state; From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: Or who could suffer Being here below?"
John Locke: Two Treatises of Government
"Hence it is evident, that absolute monarchy, which by some men is counted the only government in the world, is indeed inconsistent with civil society, and so can be no form of civil-government at all..."
David Hume: Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences
"Here then are the advantages of free states. Though a republic should be barbarous, it necessarily, by an infallible operation, gives rise to LAW, even before mankind have made any considerable advances in the other sciences. From law arises security: From security curiosity: And from curiosity knowledge."
Montesquieu: Spirit of the Laws (on Roman Decline)
"Here, in a word, is the history of the Romans: by following their original maxims, they conquered all other peoples. But after such success, their republic could no longer be maintained. It became necessary to change the form of government."
Hobbes: Leviathan
"Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called Warre; and such a warre, as is of every man, against every man."
Hannah More: The Slave Trade
"Hold, murderers, hold! not aggravate distress; Respect the passions you yourselves possess; Ev'n you, of ruffian heart, and ruthless hand, Love your own offspring, love your native land. Ah! leave them holy Freedom's cheering smile, The heav'n-taught fondness for the parent soil"
Alexander Pope: Essay on Man, Epistle I
"Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar; Wait the great teacher Death, and God adore! What future bliss, he gives not thee to know, But gives that Hope to be thy blessing now. Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never Is, but always To be blest: The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come."
Alexander Pope: An Essay on Man
"Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never Is, but always To be blest. The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come."
Adam Smith: Theory of Moral Sentiments
"How many people ruin themselves by laying out money on trinkets of frivolous utility? What pleases these lovers of toys is not so much the utility, as the aptness of the machines which are fitted to promote it. All their pockets are stuffed with little conveniences. They contrive new pockets, unknown in the clothes of other people, in order to carry a greater number. They walk about loaded with a multitude of baubles, in weight and sometimes in value not inferior to an ordinary Jew's-box, some of which may sometimes be of some little use, but all of which might at all times be very well spared, and of which the whole utility is certainly not worth the fatigue of bearing the burden."
Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
"How many women thus waste life away the prey of discontent, who might have practised as physicians, regulated a farm, managed a shop, and stood erect, supported by their own industry, instead of hanging their heads surcharged with the dew of sensibility..."
Kant: Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason
"Human beings...cannot easily be convinced that steadfast diligence directed toward a morally good way of life is all that God demands of human beings in order to be to him pleasing subjects in his kingdom."
Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African
"I ceased to feel those apprehensions and alarms which had taken such strong possession of me when I first came among the Europeans"
Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African
"I determined to make every exertion to obtain my freedom, and to return to Old England."
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason
"I have no knowledge of myself as I am, but merely as I appear to myself."
Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African
"I have served him . . . many years, and he has taken all my wages and prize-money . . . I have been baptized; and by the laws of the land no man has a right to sell me"
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason
"I have therefore found it necessary to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith."
Rousseau: Confessions
"I know my heart, and have studied mankind; I am not made like anyone I have been acquainted with, perhaps like no one in existence; if not better, I at least claim originality, and whether Nature did wisely in breaking the mold with which she formed me, can only be determined after having read this work."
Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
"I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I ruled each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I crossed these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day."
Locke: Some Thoughts Concerning Education
"I think I may say that of all the men we meet with, nine parts of ten are what they are, good or evil, useful or not, by their education."
Rousseau: Confessions
"I was not much afraid of punishment, I was only afraid of disgrace.But that I feared more than death, more than crime, more than anything in the world. I should have rejoiced if the earth had swallowed me up and stifled me in the abyss. But my invincible sense of shame prevailed over everything . It was my shame that made me impudent, and the more wickedly I behaved the bolder my fear of confession made me. I saw nothing but the horror of being found out, of being publicly proclaimed, to my face, as a thief, as a liar, and slanderer."
Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African
"I was very glad to get this book, which I scarcely could meet with anywhere. I think there was none sold in Montserrat; and much to my grief, from being forced out of Aetna in the manner I have related, my Bible, and the Guide to the Indians, the two books I loved above all others, were left behind."
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason - of the impossibility of an ontological proof of the existence of God
"If I remove the predicate of a judgment, together with its subject, there can never be an internal contradiction, whatever the predicate may be."
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason - of the impossibility of a cosmological proof of the existence of God
"If anything exists in the cosmos, then there must be an absolutely necessary Being".
David Hume: Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences
"In CHINA, there seems to be a pretty considerable stock of politeness and science, which, in the course of so many centuries, might naturally be expected to ripen into something more perfect and finished, than what has yet arisen from them. But CHINA Is one vast empire, speaking one language, governed by one law, and sympathizing in the same manners. The authority of any teachers, such as CONFUCIUS, was propagated easily from one corner of the empire to the other. None had courage to resist the torrent of popular opinion. And posterity was not bold enough to dispute what had been universally received by their ancestors. This seems to be one natural reason, why the sciences have made so slow a progress in that mighty empire."
David Hume: Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences
"In a civilized monarchy, the prince alone is unrestrained in the exercise of his authority, and possesses alone a power, which is not bounded... but though in a civilized monarchy, as well as in a republic, the people have security for the enjoyment of their property; yet in both these forms of government, those who possess the supreme authority have the disposal of many honours and advantages, which excite the ambition and avarice of mankind."
Rousseau: The Social Contract
"In a well governed state, there are few punishments, not because there are many pardons, but because criminals are rare; it is when a state is in decay that the multitude of crimes is a guarantee of impunity."
Alexander Pope: Windsor-Forest
"In brazen bonds shall barb'rous Discord dwell: Gigantic Pride, pale Terror, gloomy Care, And mad Ambition, shall attend her there: There purple Vengeance bath'd in gore retires, Her weapons blunted, and extinct her fires: There hateful Envy her own snakes shall feel, And Persecution mourn her broken wheel: There Faction roar, Rebellion bite her chain, And gasping Furies thirst for blood in vain."
George Washington: Farewell Address
"In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by Geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western"
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"In despotic countries, civil slavery is more tolerable than in other governments. But in monarchical governments, there ought to be no slavery. In democracies and in aristocracies, slavery is contrary to the spirit of the constitution"
Madison: Federalist 10
"In the extent and proper structure of the Union, therefore, we behold a republican remedy for the diseases most incident to republican government."
Madison: Federalist 10
"In the first place, it is to be remarked that, however small the republic may be, the representatives must be raised to a certain number, in order to guard against the cabals of a few; and that, however large it may be, they must be limited to a certain number, in order to guard against the confusion of a multitude."
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
"In the school of political projectors, I was but ill entertained; the professors appearing, in my judgment, wholly out of their senses, which is a scene that never fails to make me melancholy. These unhappy people were proposing schemes for persuading monarchs to choose favourites upon the score of their wisdom, capacity, and virtue [...] with many other wild, impossible chimeras, that never entered before into the heart of man to conceive; and confirmed in me the old observation, "that there is nothing so extravagant and irrational, which some philosophers have not maintained for truth."
Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with the Colonies
"In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole: and as an ardent is always a jealous affection, your colonies become suspicious, restive, and untractable, whenever they see the least attempt to wrest from them by force, or shuffle from them by chicane, what they think the only advantage worth living for. This fierce spirit of liberty is stronger in the English colonies probably than in any other people of the earth; and this from a great variety of powerful causes; which, to understand the true temper of their minds, and the direction which this spirit takes, it will not be amiss to lay open somewhat more largely."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"In this state every man, instead of being sensible of his equality, would fancy himself inferior. There would therefore be no danger of their attacking one another; peace would be the first law of nature."
Rousseau: The Social Contract
"In truth, laws are always useful to those with possessions and harmful to those who have nothing; from which it follows that the social state is advantageous to men only when all possess something and none has too much."
Kant: Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason
"It is a bare rational faith, which can be communicated to everyone in order to convince him; by contrast, a historical faith based merely on facts can spread its influence no farther than the reports relating to the ability of judging their credibility can reach according to the circumstances of time and place. However, a particular weakness of human nature bears the blame for that this pure faith can never be counted on as much as it presumably deserves..."
Kant: What is Enlightenment?
"It is difficult for the isolated individual to work himself out of the immaturity which has become almost natural for him."
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason - of the impossibility of an ontological proof of the existence of God
"It is easily perceived, from what has been said before, that the concept of an absolutely necessary being is a concept of pure reason, that is, a mere idea, the objective reality of which is by no means proved by the fact that reason requires it."
George Washington: Farewell Address
"It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another."
David Hume: Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences
"It is impossible for the arts and sciences to arise, at first, among any people unless that people enjoy the blessing of a free government."
Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
"It is incumbent on us diligently to remember that the kingdom of heaven was promised to the poor in spirit, and that minds afflicted by calamity and the contempt of mankind cheerfully listen to the divine promise of future happiness; while, on the contrary, the fortunate are satisfied with the possession of this world; and the wise abuse in doubt and dispute their vain superiority of reason and knowledge."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"It is not enough to have intermediate powers in a monarchy; there must be also a depositary of the laws. This depositary can only be the judges of the supreme courts of justice, who promulgate the new laws, and revive the obsolete. The natural ignorance of the nobility, their indolence and contempt of civil government, require that there should be a body invested with the power of reviving and executing laws, which would be otherwise buried in oblivion. The prince's council are not a proper depositary..."
George Washington: Farewell Address
"It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government."
Rousseau: Confessions
"It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"It is true that in democracies the people seem to act as they please; but political liberty does not consist in an unlimited freedom. In governments, that is, in societies directed by laws, liberty can consist only in the power of doing what we ought to will, and in not being constrained to do what we ought not to will."
Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
"It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men; nay, it is vain to expect that strength of natural affection which would make them good wives and mothers."
Rousseau: The Social Contract
"Japanese sleight of hand artists are said to dismember a child before the eyes of spectators, then, throwing all the parts in the air one after the other, they make the child fall back down alive and all in one piece. These conjuring acts of our political theorists are more or less like these performances."
Alexander Pope: An Essay on Man
"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, The proper study of mankind is Man."
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
"Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society. Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no one may be forced to do anything not provided for by law."
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
"Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are equally eligible to all dignities and to all public positions and occupations, according to their abilities, and without distinction except that of their virtues and talents."
Lessing: Nathan the Wise
"Let each endeavor To vie with both his brothers in displaying The virtue of his ring; assist its might With gentleness, benevolence, forebearance, With inward resignation to the godhead, And if the virtues of the ring continue To show themselves among your children's children, After a thousand years, appear Before this judgment-seat—a greater one Then I shall sit upon it, and decide."
Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African
"Let the polished and haughty European recollect that his ancestors were once, like the Africans, uncivilized, and even barbarous. Did Nature make them inferior to their sons? and should they too have been made slaves? Every rational mind answers, No"
Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with the Colonies
"Let us get an American revenue as we have got an American empire. English privileges have made it all that it is; English privileges alone will make it all that it can be."
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
"Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law"
George Washington: Farewell Address
"Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian".
Alexander Pope: Essay on Man, Epistle I
"Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; His soul proud Science never taught ot stray Far as the solar walk, or milky way; Yet simple Nature to his hope has giv'n, Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav'n; Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd, Some happier island in the watry waste, Where slaves once more their native land behold, No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold!"
Olympe de Gouges: Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Female Citizen
"MAN, are you capable of being just? It is a woman who is asking you this question, and you will not take away her right to do so. Tell me what has given you the sovereign right to oppress my sex - your strength, your talents?"
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"Man in a state of nature would have the faculty of knowing, before he had acquired any knowledge. Plain it is that his first ideas would not be of a speculative nature; he would think of the preservation of his being, before he would investigate its origin. Such a man would feel nothing in himself at first but impotency and weakness; his fears and apprehensions would be excessive; as appears from instances..."
Rousseau: The Social Contract
"Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they."
Samuel Johnson: Rasselas
"Man surely has some latent sense for which this place affords no gratification; or he has some desire distinct from sense, which must be satisfied before he can be happy."
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
"Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good."
Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
"Men are not aware of the misery they cause and the vicious weakness they cherish by only inciting women to render themselves pleasing; they do not consider that they thus make natural and artificial duties clash by sacrificing the comfort and respectability of a woman's life to voluptuous notions of beauty when in nature they all harmonize."
Rousseau: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
"Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million."
Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther
"Must it ever be thus-that the source of our happiness must also be the fountain of our misery? The full and ardent sentiment which animated my heart with the love of nature, overwhelming me with a torrent of delight, and which brought all paradise before me, has now become an insupportable torment, a demon which perpetually pursues and harrasses me."
Alexander Pope: Windsor-Forest
"My humble Muse, in unambitious strains, Paints the green forests and the flow'ry plains, Where Peace descending bids her olives spring, And scatters blessings from her dove-like wing. Ev'n I more sweetly pass my careless days, Pleas'd in the silent shade with empty praise; Enough for me, that to the list'ning swains First in these fields I sung the sylvan strains."
Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with the Colonies
"My idea, therefore, without considering whether we yield as matter of right, or grant as matter of favor, is to admit the people of our Colonies into an interest in the Constitution; and, by recording that admission in the journals of Parliament, to give them as strong an assurance as the nature of the thing will admit, that we mean forever to adhere to that solemn declaration of systematic indulgence."
Rousseau: Confessions
"My illusions about the world caused me to think that in order to benefit by my reading I ought to possess all the knowledge the book presupposed. I was very far indeed from imagining that often the author did not possess it himself, but had extracted it from other books, as and when he needed it. This foolish conviction forced me to stop every moment, and to rush incessantly from one book to another; sometimes before coming to the tenth page of the one I was trying to read I should, by this extravagant method, have had to run through whole libraries. Nevertheless I stuck to it so persistently that I wasted infinite time, and my head became so confused that I could hardly see or take in anything."
Hobbes: Leviathan
"Nature hath made men so equall, in the faculties of body, and mind; as that though there bee found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body, or of quicker mind then another; yet when all is reckoned together, the difference between man, and man, is not so considerable, as that one man can thereupon claim to himselfe any benefit, to which another may not pretend, as well as he."
Rousseau: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
"Nature treats all animals left to its care with a tenderness that seems to show how jealous it is of that right. The horse, the cat, the bull, even the ass, are usually taller, and all of them have a more robust constitution, more vigor, more strength, and more courage in the forests than in our homes."
Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther
"No one is willing to believe that adults too, like children, wander about this earth in a daze and, like children, do not know where they come from or where they are going, act as rarely as they do according to genuine motives, and are as thoroughly governed as they are by biscuits and cake and the rod."
John Locke: Two Treatises of Government
"Nobody doubts but an express consent of any man entering into any society, makes him a perfect member of that society, a subject of that government. The difficulty is, what ought to be looked upon as a tacit consent, and how far it binds, i.e. how far anyone shall be looked on to have consented, and thereby submitted to any government, where he has made no expressions of it at all."
Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations
"Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another dog. Nobody ever saw one animal by its gestures and natural cries signify to another, this is mine, that yours."
David Hume: Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences
"Nothing is more favourable to the rise of politeness and learning, than a number of neighbouring and independent states, connected together by commerce and policy."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"Now in republics private crimes are more public, that is, they attack the constitution more than they do individuals; and in monarchies, public crimes are more private, that is, they are more prejudicial to private people than to the constitution."
Rousseau: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
"Now it is evident that this identification must have been infinitely more perfect in the state of nature than in the state of reason. It is reason that engenders self-love, and reflection that strengthens it; it is reason that makes man shrink into himself; it is reason that makes him keep aloof from everything that can trouble or afflict him: it is philosophy that destroys his connections with other men."
George Washington: Farewell Address
"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all."
George Washington: Farewell Address
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."
James Thomson: A Poem Sacred to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton
"Of cruelty and blood, Nature herself Stood all subdu'd by him, and open laid Her every latent glory to his view."
Samuel Johnson: Rasselas
"Of those wishes that they had formed they well knew that none could be obtained. They deliberated awhile what was to be done, and resolved, when the inundation should cease, to return to Abyssinia."
Alexander Pope: Windsor-Forest
"Oh stretch they reign, fair Peace! from shore to shore, 'Till Conquest cease, and slav'ry be no more; 'Till the freed Indians in their native groves Reap their own fruits, and woo their sable loves"
Thomas Day: The Dying Negro
"Oh! my heart sinks, my dying eyes o'erflow, When mem'ry paints the picture of their woe! For I have seen them, ere the dawn of day, Rouz'd by the lash, begin their chearless way; Greeting with groans unwelcome morn's return, While rage and shame their gloomy bosoms burn;"
Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther
"Oh, when Nature in her glory stands before me rigid as a lacquered little picture and all the delight of it cannot pump one drop of bliss from my heart up to my brain and my poor self, all that it is, stands before the countenance of God like a dried-up well and a broken pitcher. Often I have thrown myself on the earth and prayed God for tears as a countryman prays for rain when the sky above him is brass and the ground around him parching."
Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
"One class presses on another; for all are aiming to procure respect on account of their property: and property, once gained, will procure the respect due only to talents and virtue."
Adam Smith: Theory of Moral Sentiments
"Our imaginations, which in pain and sorrow seems to be confined and cooped up within our own persons, in times of ease and prosperity expands itself to everything around us. We are then charmed with the beauty of that accommodation which reigns in the palaces and economy of the great; and admire how everything is adapted to promote their ease, to prevent their wans, to gratify their wishes, and to amuse and entertain their most frivolous desires."
Voltaire: Candide
"Pangloss gave instruction in metaphysico-theologico-cosmolo-nigology. He proved admirably that there cannot possibly be an effect without a cause and that in this best of all possible worlds the baron's castle was the most beautiful of all castles and his wife the best of all possible baronesses. —It is clear, said he, that things cannot be otherwise than they are, for since everything is made to serve an end, everything necessarily serves the best end. Observe: noses were made to support spectacles, hence we have spectacles. Legs, as anyone can plainly see, were made to be breeched, and so we have breeches. . . . Consequently, those who say everything is well are uttering mere stupidities; they should say everything is for the best."
Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with the Colonies
"Permit me, Sir, to add another circumstance in our colonies... I mean their education. In no country perhaps in the world is the law so general a study. The profession itself is numerous and powerful; and in most provinces it takes the lead. The greater number of the deputies sent to the congress were lawyers. But all who read, and most do read, endeavour to obtain some smattering in that science... This study renders men acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defence, full of resources."
Locke: Some Thoughts Concerning Education
"Plenty of open Air, Exercise and Sleep; plain Diet, no Wine or strong drink, and very little or no Physic; not too warm and straight clothing, especially the head and feet kept cold, and the feet often used to cold water, and exposed to wet."
John Locke: Two Treatises of Government
"Political power, then, I take to be a right of making laws, with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community in the execution of such laws, and in the defence of the commonwealth from foreign injury, and all this only for the public good."
Alexander Pope: An Essay on Man
"Presumptuous Man! the reason wouldst thou find, Why form'd so weak, so little, and so blind? First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess, Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less! Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade? Or ask of yonder argent fields above, Why Jove's Satellites are less than Jove?"
Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with the Colonies
"Refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion, and ever will be so long as the world endures. Plain good intention, which is as easily discovered at the first view as fraud is surely detected at last, is (let me say) of no mean force in the government of mankind."
Adam Smith: Theory of Moral Sentiments
"Resentment seems to have been given us by nature for defense, and for defense only. It is the safeguard of justice and the security of innocence."
Montesquieu: Spirit of the Laws (on Roman Decline)
"Rome lost its liberty because it achieved its distinctive mission (ouvrage) too soon."
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason
"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life."
Olympe de Gouges: Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Female Citizen
"Search, seek out and single out, if you can, sexes in the conduct of nature. Everywhere you will find them intermingled, everywhere working harmoniously together in this immortal masterpiece."
Hannah More: The Slave Trade
"Shall Britain, where the soul of freedom reigns, Forge chains for others she herself disdains? Forbid it, Heaven! O let the nations know The liberty she loves she will bestow"
Hannah More: The Slave Trade
"She tears the banner stained with blood and tears, And, Liberty! thy shining standard rears! As the bright ensign's glory she displays, See pale Oppression faints beneath the blaze! The giant dies! No more his frown appals: The chain, untouched, drops off; the fetter falls."
Montesquieu: Spirit of the Laws (on Roman Decline)
"Since citizenship was attained only as the result of a fiction, since there were no longer the same magistrates, the same walls, the same gods, temples, and tombs, Rome was no longer viewed with the same eyes, did not inspire the same love of country as in the past..."
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason
"Skepticism is thus a resting-place for human reason, where it can reflect upon its dogmatic wanderings and make survey of the region in which it finds itself, so that for the future it may be able to choose its path with more certainty. But it is no dwelling-place for permanent settlement. Such can be obtained only through perfect certainty in our knowledge, alike of the objects themselves and of the limits within which all our knowledge of objects is enclosed."
John Locke: Two Treatises of Government
"So that God, by commanding to subdue, gave authority so far to appropriate: and the condition of human life, which requires labour and materials to work on, necessarily introduces private possessions."
Rousseau: The Social Contract
"Sovereignty is indivisible for the same reason that it is inalienable. For either the will is general or it is not. It is the will of either the people as a whole or of only a part. In the first case, this will once declared is an act of sovereignty and constitutes law. In the second case, it is merely a private will, or an act of magistracy. At most it is a decree."
Alexander Pope: An Essay on Man
"Submit. In this, or any other sphere, Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear: Safe in the hand of one disposing Power, Or in the natal, or the mortal hour."
Adam Smith: Theory of Moral Sentiments
"Sympathy, therefore, does not arise so much from the view of passion, as from that of the situation which excites it. We sometimes feel for another, a passion of which he himself seems to be altogether incapable; because, when we put ourselves in his case, that passion arises in our breast from the imagination, though it does not in his from the reality."
Locke: Some Thoughts Concerning Education
"That a man is able to deny himself his own desires, cross his own inclinations, and purely follow what reason directs as best, though the appetite lean the other way."
Benjamin Franklin: A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge Among the British Plantations in America
"That one society be formed of virtuosi or ingenious men, residing in the several colonies, to be called The American Philosophical Society, who are to maintain a constant correspondence."
Jefferson: Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
"That our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry, That therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages, to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right, That..."
Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations
"That system which represents the produce of land as the sole source of the revenue and wealth of every country has, so far as by that time, never been adopted by any nation, and it at present exists only in the speculations of a few men of great learning and ingenuity in France."
Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with the Colonies
"That the Colonies and Plantations of Great Britain in North America, consisting of fourteen separate governments, and containing two millions and upwards of free inhabitants, have not had the liberty and privilege of electing and sending any Knights and Burgesses, or others, to represent them in the High Court of Parliament."
Locke: Some Thoughts Concerning Education
"That the difference to be found in the manners and abilities of men, is owing more to their Education than to anything else; we have reason to conclude, that great care is to be had of the forming children's minds, and give them that seasoning early, which should influence their Lives always after"
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
"That which gave me most uneasiness among these maids of honour (when my nurse carried me to visit then) was, to see them use me without any manner of ceremony, like a creature who had no sort of consequence: for they would strip themselves to the skin, and put on their smocks in my presence, while I was placed on their toilet, directly before their naked bodies, which I am sure to me was very far from being a tempting sight, or from giving me any other emotions than those of horror and disgust: their skins appeared so coarse and uneven."
Hobbes: Leviathan
"The Desires, and other Passions of man, are in themselves no Sin. No more are the Actions, that proceed from those Passions, till they know a Law that forbids them: which till Lawes be made they cannot know: nor can any Law be made till they have agreed upon the Person that shall make it."
Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
"The Jewish religion was admirably fitted for defence, but it was never designed for conquest..."
Montesquieu: Spirit of the Laws (on Roman Decline)
"The Romans arrived at their domination of other peoples, not only by their command of the art of war, but also by their prudence, wisdom, perseverance, by their love of glory and homeland. After these virtues disappeared under the emperors, the art of war remained. Because of it, the Romans, despite the weakness and tyranny of their rulers, were able to keep what they had acquired earlier. But when corruption made itself felt even in the army, Rome became the prey of all other peoples. An empire founded by arms must be maintained by arms."
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
"The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression."
Olympe de Gouges: Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Female Citizen
"The aim of all political associations is to preserve the natural and inalienable rights of Woman and Man: these are the rights to liberty, ownership, safety and, above all, resistance to oppression."
George Washington: Farewell Address
"The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution...is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government".
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"The best aristocracy is that in which those who have no share in the legislature are so few and inconsiderable that the governing party have no interest in oppressing them... Aristocratic families ought therefore, as much as possible, to level themselves in appearance with the people. The more an aristocracy borders on democracy, the nearer it approaches perfection: and, in proportion as it draws towards monarchy, the more is it imperfect."
Rousseau: The Social Contract
"The bounds of possibility, in moral matters, are less narrow than we imagine: it is our weaknesses, our vices and our prejudices that confine them. Base souls have no belief in great men; vile slaves smile in mockery at the name of liberty."
Madison: Federalist 10
"The causes of faction cannot be removed, and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its effects... To secure the public good and private rights against the danger of such a faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and the form of popular government, is then the great object to which our inquiries are directed."
Samuel Johnson: Rasselas
"The causes of good and evil are so various and uncertain, so often entangled with each other, so diversified by various relations, and so much subject to accidents which cannot be foreseen, that he who would fix his condition upon incontestable reasons of preference, must live and die inquiring and deliberating."
Kant: Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason
"The common man understands by it always his church faith, which strikes his senses, whereas religion is hidden inwardly and depends on moral attitudes."
Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
"The condemnation of the wisest and most virtuous of the Pagans, on account of their ignorance or disbelief of the divine truth, seem to offend the reason and the humanity of the present age."
Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
"The ecclesiastical governors of the Christians were taught to unite the wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of the dove; but, as the former was refined, so the latter was insensibly corrupted, by the habits of government."
Voltaire: Candide
"The enormous riches which this rascal had stolen were sunk beside him in the sea, and nothing was saved but a single sheep. You see, said Candide to Martin, crime is punished sometimes; ... Yes, said Martin, but did the passengers aboard his ship have to perish too? God punished the scoundrel, the devil drowned the others".
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"The executive power ought to be in the hands of a monarch, because this branch of government, having need of dispatch, is better administered by one than by many... but if there were no monarch, and the executive power should be committed to a certain number of person selected from the legislative body, there would be an end then of liberty; by reason the two powers would be united"
Rousseau: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
"The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this imposter; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody."
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
"The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law."
Diderot and d'Alembert: Encyclopédie
"The goal of an encyclopedia is to assemble all the knowledge scattered on the surface of the earth, to demonstrate the general system to the people with whom we live, & to transmit it to the people who will come after us, so that the works of centuries past is not useless to the centuries which follow, that our descendants, by becoming more learned, may become more virtuous & happier, & that we do not die without having merited being part of the human race."
Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations
"The great commerce of every civilised society is that carried on between the inhabitants of the town and those of the country. It consists in the exchange of crude for manufactured produce, either immediately, or by the intervention of money, or of some sort of paper which represents money. The country supplies the town with the means of subsistence and the materials of manufacture. The town repays this supply by sending back a part of the manufactured produce to the inhabitants of the country. The town, in which there neither is nor can be any reproduction of substances, may very properly be said to gain its whole wealth and subsistence from the country. We must not, however, upon this account, imagine that the gain of the town is the loss of the country. The gains of both are mutual and reciprocal, and the division of labour is in this, as in all other cases, advantageous to all the different persons employed in the various occupations into which it is subdivided."
George Washington: Farewell Address
"The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible."
Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations
"The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labor, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is anywhere directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labor."
Montesquieu: Spirit of the Laws (on Roman Decline)
"The historians never tire of repeating that internal divisions ruined Rome. What they fail to see is that these divisions were necessary, that they had always existed, and should have continued to exist. It was the excessive size of the republic that alone created the evil, that transformed popular tumults into civil wars."
Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther
"The human race is but a monotonous affair. Most of them labor the greater part of their time for mere subsistence; and the scanty portion of freedom which remains to them so troubles them that they use every exertion to get rid of it."
Rousseau: Confessions
"The indolence I love is not that of a lazy fellow who sits with his arms across in total inaction, and thinks no more than he acts, but that of a child which is incessantly in motion doing nothing, and that of a dotard who wanders from his subject. I love to amuse myself with trifles, by beginning a hundred things and never finishing one of them, by going or coming as I take either into my head, by changing my project at every instant, by following a fly through all its windings, in wishing to overturn a rock to see what is under it, by undertaking with ardor the work of ten years, and abandoning it without regret at the end of ten minutes; finally, in musing from morning until night without order or coherence, and in following in everything the caprice of a moment."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"The intermediate, subordinate, and dependent powers constitute the nature of monarchical government; I mean of that in which a single person governs by fundamental laws. I said the intermediate, subordinate, and dependent powers. And indeed, in monarchies the prince is the source of all power, political and civil."
Alexander Pope: Essay on Man, Epistle I
"The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, Had he thy Reason, would he skip and play? Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flow'ry food And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood. Oh blindness to the future! kindly giv'n That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, A hero perish, or a sparrow fall, Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd"
Madison: Federalist 10
"The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity... A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice..."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"The legislative power is therefore committed to the body of the nobles, and to that which represents the people, each having their assemblies and deliberations apart, each their separate views and interests."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"The misfortune of a republic is when intrigues are at an end; which happens when the people are gained by bribery and corruption: in this case they grow indifferent to public affairs, and avarice becomes their predominant passion."
Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations
"The monopoly of the colony trade, therefore, like all the other mean and malignant expedients of the mercantile system, depresses the industry of all other countries, but chiefly that of the colonies, without in the least increasing, but on the contrary diminishing, that of the country in whose favor it is established... the monopoly hinders the capital of that country... discourages the improvement of land..."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"The most natural, intermediate, and subordinate power is that of the nobility. This in some measure seems to be essential to a monarchy, whose fundamental maxim is: no monarch, no nobility; no nobility, no monarch; but there may be a despotic prince."
Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
"The names of virtues, with their precepts were: 1. Temperance Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. 2. Silence Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation ..."
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
"The nurse, to quiet her babe, made use of a rattle which was a kind of hollow vessel filled with great stones, and fastened by a cable to the child's waist: but all in vain; so that she was forced to apply the last remedy by giving it suck. I must confess no object ever disgusted me so much as the sight of her monstrous breast, which I cannot tell what to compare with, so as to give the curious reader an idea of its bulk, shape, and colour. It stood prominent six feet, and could not be less than sixteen in circumference. The nipple was about half the bigness of my head, and the hue both of that and the dug, so varied with spots, pimples, and freckles, that nothing could appear more nauseous."
David Hume: Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences
"The only difference is, that, in a republic, the candidates for office must look downwards, to gain the suffrages of the people; in a monarchy, they must turn their attention upwards, to court the good graces and favour of the great. To be successful in the former way, it is necessary for a man to make himself useful, by his industry, capacity, or knowledge: to be prosperous in the latter way, it is requisite for him to render himself agreeable, by his wit, complaisance, or civility."
Edmund Burke: On Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland
"The poor word ascendancy, so soft and melodious in its sound, so lenitive and emollient in its first usage, is now employed to cover to the world the most rid, and perhaps not the most wise, of all plans of policy. The word is large enough in its comprehension. I cannot conceive what mode of oppression in civil life or what mode of religious persecution, may not come within the methods of preserving an ascendancy."
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
"The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation."
Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with the Colonies
"The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war; not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations; not peace to arise out of universal discord, fomented from principle, in all parts of the empire; not peace to depend on the juridical determination of perplexing questions, or the precise marking the shadowy boundaries of a complex government. It is simple peace, sought in its natural course and in its ordinary haunts."
Kant: What is Enlightenment?
"The public use of a man's reason must be free at all times, and this alone can bring enlightenment among men..."
Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with the Colonies
"The question with me is, not whether you have a right to render your people miserable, but whether it is not your interest to make them happy. It is not what a lawyer tells me I MAY do, but what humanity, reason and justice tell me I OUGHT to do."
Montesquieu: Spirit of the Laws (on Roman Decline)
"The soldiers came to recognize only their general, on whom they placed all their hopes. Rome itself began to recede from their view. They were no longer the soldiers of the republic, but those of Sulla, Marius, Pompey, and Caesar."
John Locke: Two Treatises of Government
"The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it, which obliges every one, and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions; for men being all the workmanship of one omnipotent and infinitely wise Maker; all the servants of one sovereign Master, sent into the world by His order and about His business; they are His property, whose workmanship they are made to last during His, not one another's pleasure."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"The state of slavery is in its own nature bad. It is neither useful to the master nor to the slave; not to the slave, because he can do nothing through a motive of virtue; nor to the master, because by having an unlimited authority over his slaves he insensibly accustoms himself to the want of all moral virtues, and thence becomes fierce, hasty, severe, choleric, voluptuous, and cruel."
John Locke: Two Treatises of Government
"The state of war is a state of enmity and destruction... and hence it is that he who attempts to get another man into his absolute power does thereby put himself into a state of war with him"
Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther
"The suffering may be moral or physical; and in my opinion it is just as absurd to call a man a coward who destroys himself, as to call a man a coward who dies of a malignant fever."
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
"The sum of his discourse was to this effect: "That about forty years ago, certain persons went up to Laputa, either upon business or diversion, and, after five months continuance, came back with a very little smattering in mathematics, but full of volatile spirits acquired in that airy region: that these persons, upon their return, began to dislike the management of every thing below, and fell into schemes of putting all arts, sciences, languages, and mechanics, upon a new foot. To this end, they procured a royal patent for erecting an academy of projectors in Lagado; and the humour prevailed so strongly among the people, that there is not a town of any consequence in the kingdom without such an academy. In these colleges the professors contrive new rules and methods of agriculture and building, and new instruments, and tools for all trades and manufactures; whereby, as they undertake, one man shall do the work of ten; a palace may be built in a week, of materials so durable as to last for ever without repairing. "
Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
"The supernatural gifts, which even in this life were ascribed to the Christians above the rest of mankind, must have conduced to their own comfort, and very frequently to the conviction of infidels. Besides the occasional prodigies... has claimed an uninterrupted succession of miraculous powers, the gift of tongues, of vision and of prophecy, the power of expelling demons, of healing the sick, and of raising the dead."
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (on apperception)
"The thought that the representations given in intuition belong all of them to me, is therefore the same as that I connect them in one self-consciousness, or am able at least to do so..."
Alexander Pope: Windsor-Forest
"The time shall come, when free as seas or wind Unbounded Thames shall flow for all mankind, Whole nations enter with each swelling tyde, And seas but join the regions they divide"
Samuel Johnson: Rasselas
"The truth is that no mind is much employed upon the present; recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments."
Rousseau: The Social Contract
"The word 'slavery' and 'right' are contradictory, they cancel each other out. Whether as between one man and another, or between one man and a whole people, it would always be absurd to say: "I hereby make a covenant with you which is wholly at your expense and wholly to my advantage; I will respect it so long as I please and you shall respect it as long as I wish."
Madison: Federalist 10
"There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests. It could never be more truly said than of the first remedy, that it was worse than the disease."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"There are three species of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic."
Rousseau: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
"There arose between the title of the strongest, and that of the first occupier a perpetual conflict, which always ended in battery and bloodshed. Infant society became a scene of the most horrible warfare: Mankind thus debased and harassed, and no longer able to retreat, or renounce the unhappy acquisitions it had made; labouring, in short merely to its confusion by the abuse of those faculties, which in themselves do it so much honour, brought itself to the very brink of ruin and destruction."
Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
"There is a homely proverb, which speaks a shrewd truth, that whoever the devil finds idle he will employ. And what but habitual idleness can hereditary wealth and titles produce?"
Kant: Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason
"There is only one (true) religion; but there can be many kinds of faith"
Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with the Colonies
"There is, however, a circumstance attending these colonies, which, in my opinion, fully counterbalances this difference, and makes the spirit of liberty still more high and haughty than in those to the northward. It is, that in Virginia and the Carolinas they have a vast multitude of slaves... The fact is so; and these people of the southern colonies are much more strongly, and with a higher and more stubborn spirit, attached to liberty, than those to the northward."
Adam Smith: Theory of Moral Sentiments
"There is, however, another virtue, of which the observance is not left to the freedom of our own wills, which may be extorted by force, and of which the violation exposes to resentment, and consequently to punishment. This virtue is justice: the violation of justice is injury: it does real and positive hurt to some particular persons, from motives which are naturally disapproved of. It is, therefore, the proper object of resentment, and of punishment, which is the natural consequence of resentment."
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
"There was a great lord at court, nearly related to the king, and for that reason alone used with respect. He was universally reckoned the most ignorant and stupid person among them. He had performed many eminent services for the crown, had great natural and acquired parts, adorned with integrity and honour; but so ill an ear for music, that his detractors reported, "he had been often known to beat time in the wrong place;" neither could his tutors, without extreme difficulty, teach him to demonstrate the most easy proposition in the mathematics."
Montesquieu: Spirit of the Laws (on Roman Decline)
"Thereafter, Rome was no longer that city distinguished by a people with a single spirit, the same love for liberty, the same hatred of tyranny. The people's jealousy of the senate's power and the prerogatives of the great, had always been mixed with respect; such jealousy came to nothing more than the love of equality."
Rousseau: Discourse on the Sciences and Arts
"Therefore let kings not disdain to admit into their councils the men most capable of counseling them well. Let them renounce the old prejudice invented by the pride of the great, that the art of leading peoples is more difficult than that of enlightening them, as if it were easier to induce men to act well of their own accord than to compel them to do it by force."
George Washington: Farewell Address
"These considerations...exhibit the continuance of the Union as a primary object of patriotic desire" ;
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"These two different kinds of states give rise to human laws. Considered as inhabitants of so great a planet, which necessarily contains a variety of nations, they have laws relating to their mutual intercourse, which is what we call the law of nations. As members of a society that must be properly supported, they have laws relating to the governors and the governed, and this we distinguish by the name of politic law. They have also another sort of law, as they stand in relation to each other; by which is understood the civil law."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"These warriors, so proud, so audacious, so terrible abroad could not be very moderate at home. To demand that the citizens of a free state be audacious in war and timid in peace is to ask for the impossible. As a general rule, it may be assumed that whenever everyone is tranquil in a state that calls itself a republic, that state is no longer free."
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
"They are very bad reasoners, and vehemently given to opposition, unless when they happen to be of the right opinion, which is seldom their case. Imagination, fancy, and invention, they are wholly strangers to, nor have any words in their language, by which those ideas can be expressed; the whole compass of their thoughts and mind being shut up within the two forementioned sciences."
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
"They go on Shore to rob and plunder; they see an harmless People, are entertained with Kindness, they give the Country a new Name,...Here commences a New Dominion acquired with a Title by Divine Right...the Earth reeking with the Blood of its Inhabitants."
Edmund Burke: On Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland
"They pretend that their religious maxims were clear and ascertained, and so useful that they were bound, for the eternal benefit of mankind, to defend or diffuse them, though by any sacrifices of the temporal good of those who were the objects of their system of experiment. The bottom of this theory of persecution is false. It is not permitted to us to sacrifice the temporal good of any body of men to our own ideas of the truth and falsehood of any religious opinions."
Adam Smith: Theory of Moral Sentiments
"This disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition, though necessary both to establish and to maintain the distinction of ranks and the order of society, is, at the same time, the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments. That wealth and greatness are often regarded with the respect and admiration which are due only to wisdom and virtue; and that the contempt, of which vice and folly are the only proper objects, is often most unjustly bestowed upon poverty and weakness, has been the complaint of moralists in all ages"
Diderot and d'Alembert: Encyclopédie
"This is a work that cannot be completed except by a society of men of letters and skilled workmen, each working separately on his own part, but all bound together solely by their zeal for the best interests of the human race and a feeling of mutual good will."
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
"This is all according to the due Course of Things: But, when I behond a Lump of Deformity and Diseases both in Body and Mind, smitten with Pride, it immediately breaks all the Measures of my Patience."
Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
"This man continued to live in this decaying place, and to declaim in the same strain, refusing for many years to buy a house there, because all was going to destruction; and at last I had the pleasure of seeing him give five times as much for one as he might have bought it for when he first began his croaking."
George Washington: Farewell Address
"This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind."
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
"Those to whom the king had entrusted me, observing how ill I was clad, ordered a tailor to come next morning, and take measure for a suit of clothes. This operator did his office after a different manner from those of his trade in Europe. He first took my altitude by a quadrant, and then, with a rule and compasses, described the dimensions and outlines of my whole body, all which he entered upon paper; and in six days brought my clothes very ill made, and quite out of shape, by happening to mistake a figure in the calculation. But my comfort was, that I observed such accidents very frequent, and little regarded."
Rousseau: Discourse on the Sciences and Arts
"Thus it is that luxury, profligacy and slavery, have been, in all ages, the scourge of the efforts of our pride to emerge from that happy state of ignorance, in which the wisdom of providence had placed us. That thick veil with which it has covered all its operations seems to be a sufficient proof that it never designed us for such fruitless researches. But is there, indeed, one lesson it has taught us, by which we have rightly profited, or which we have neglected with impunity? Let men learn for once that nature would have preserved them from science, as a mother snatches a dangerous weapon from the hands of her child. Let them know that all the secrets she hides are so many evils from which she protects them, and that the very difficulty they find in acquiring knowledge is not the least of her bounty towards them. Men are perverse; but they would have been far worse, if they had had the misfortune to be born learned."
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
"Thus the young ladies are as much ashamed of being cowards and fools as the men, and despise all personal ornaments, beyond decency and cleanliness: neither did I perceive any difference in their education made by their difference of sex, only that the exercises of the females were not altogether so robust; and that some rules were given them relating to domestic life, and a smaller compass of learning was enjoined them: for their maxim is, that among peoples of quality, a wife should be always a reasonable and agreeable companion, because she cannot always be young."
Alexander Pope: Essay on Man, Epistle I
"To Be, contents his natural desire, He asks no Angel's wing, no Seraph's fire; But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company."
Samuel Johnson: Rasselas
"To a poet nothing can be useless. Whatever is beautiful and whatever is dreadful must be familiar to his imagination; he must be conversant with all that is awfully vast or elegantly little. The plants of the garden, the animals of the wood, the minerals of the earth, and meteors of the sky, must all concur to store his mind with inexhaustible variety; for every idea is useful for the enforcement or decoration of moral or religious truth..."
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason - of the impossibility of an ontological proof of the existence of God
"To accept a triangle and yet to reject its three angles is contradictory, but there is no contradiction at all in admitting the non-existence of the triangle and of its three angles. The same thing applies to the concept of an absolutely necessary being. Remove its existence, and you remove the thing itself, with all its predicates, so that a contradiction becomes impossible."
Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with the Colonies
"To impoverish the Colonies in general, and in particular to arrest the noble course of their marine enterprises, would be a more easy task. I freely confess it."
Benjamin Franklin: A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge Among the British Plantations in America
"To such of these who are men of speculation, many hints must from time to time arise, many observations occur, which if well examined, pursued and improved, might produce discoveries to the advantage of some or all of the British plantations, or to the benefit of mankind in general."
Locke: Some Thoughts Concerning Education
"To teach him betimes to love and be good-natur'd to others, is to lay early the true foundation of an honest man; all injustice generally springing from too great love of ourselves and too little of others."
George Washington: Farewell Address
"To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliance, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute".
Hobbes: Leviathan
"To this warre of every man against every man, this also is consequent; that nothing can be Unjust. The notions of Right and Wrong, Justice and Injustice have there no place. Where there is no common Power, there is no Law: where no Law, no Injustice."
John Locke: Two Treatises of Government
"To understand political power aright, and derive it from its original, we must consider what estate all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of Nature, without asking leave or depending upon the will of any other man. A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another, there being nothing more evident than that creatures of the same species and rank, promiscuously born to all the same advantages of Nature, and the use of the same faculties, should also be equal one amongst another, without subordination or subjection, unless the lord and master of them all should, by any manifest declaration of his will, set one above another, and confer on him, by an evident and clear appointment, an undoubted right to dominion and sovereignty."
Rousseau: The Social Contract
"Under bad governments, this equality is only apparent and illusory: it serves only to-keep the pauper in his poverty and the rich man in the position he has usurped. In fact, laws are always of use to those who possess and harmful to those who have nothing: from which it follows that the social state is advantageous to men only when all have something and none too much."
Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
"Under these circumstances, Christianity offered itself to the world, armed with the strength of the Mosaic law, and delivered from the weight of its fetters. An exclusive zeal for the truth of religion and the unity of God was as carefully inculcated in the new as in the ancient system..."
Adam Smith: Theory of Moral Sentiments
"Upon these two different efforts, upon that of the spectator to enter into the sentiments of the person principally concerned, and upon that of the person principally concerned, to bring down his emotions to what the spectator can go along with, are founded two different sets of virtues. The soft, the gentle, the amiable virtues, the virtues of candid condescension and indulgent humanity, are founded upon the one: the great, the awful and respectable, the virtues of self-denial, of self-government, of that command of the passions which subjects all the movements of our nature to what our own dignity and honor, and the propriety of our own conduct require, take their origin from the other."
Rousseau: Discourse on the Sciences and Arts
"Useless, do I say? Would God they were! Society would be more peaceful, and morals less corrupt. But these vain and futile declaimers go forth on all sides, armed with their fatal paradoxes, to sap the foundations of our faith, and nullify virtue. They smile contemptuously at such old names as patriotism and religion, and consecrate their talents and philosophy to the destruction and defamation of all that men hold sacred."
Locke: Some Thoughts Concerning Education
"Virtue is harder to be got than knowledge of the world; and, if lost in a young man, is seldom recovered."
Declaration of Independence
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"Were I to vindicate our right to make slaves of the Negroes, these should be my arguments: The Europeans, having extirpated the Americans, were obliged to make slaves of the Africans, for clearing such vast tracts of land. Sugar would be too dear if the plants which produce it were cultivated by any other than slaves. These creatures are all over black, and with such a flat nose that they can scarcely be pitied. It is hardly to be believed that God, who is a wise Being, should place a soul, especially a good soul, in such a black ugly body..."
Rousseau: The Social Contract
"What man loses by the social contract is his natural liberty and an unlimited right to everything he tries to get and succeeds in getting; what he gains is civil liberty and the proprietorship of all he possesses."
Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther
"When I consider the narrow limits within which our active and inquiring faculties are confined; when I see how all our energies are wasted in providing for mere necessities, which again have no further end than to prolong a wretched existence; and then that all our satisfaction concerning certain subjects of investigation ends in nothing better than a passive resignation... when I consider all this... I am silent."
Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
"When a woman is admired for her beauty, and suffers herself to be so far intoxicated by the admiration she receives as to neglect to discharge the indispensable duty of a mother, she sins against herself by neglecting to cultivate an affection that would equally tend to make her useful and happy."
Thomas Day: The Dying Negro
"When crimes like these thy injur'd pow'r prophane, O God of Nature! art thou call'd in vain? Did'st thou for this sustain a mortal wound, While Heav'n, and Earth, and Hell, hung trembling round? That these vile fetters might my body bind, And agony like this distract my mind?"
Declaration of Independence
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy. When the supreme power is lodged in the hands of a part of the people, it is then an aristocracy."
Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
"When the promise of eternal happiness was proposed to mankind, on condition of adopting the faith and of observing the precepts of the gospel, it is no wonder that so advantageous an offer should have been accepted by great number of every religion, of every rank, and of every province in the Roman empire."
Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther
"When the surgeon came, he was still lying on the floor; and his pulse beat, but his limbs were cold. The bullet, entering the forehead, over the right eye, had penetrated the skull. A vein was opened in his right arm: the blood came, and he still continued to breathe. From the blood which flowed from the chair, it could be inferred that he had committed the rash act sitting at his bureau, and that he afterward fell upon the floor. He was found lying on his back near the window. He was in full-dress costume. The house, the neighbourhood, and the whole town were immediately in commotion. Albert arrived. They had laid Werther on the bed: his head was bound up, and the paleness of death was upon his face. His limbs were motionless; but he still breathed, at one time strongly, then weaker—his death was momently expected. He had drunk only one glass of the wine. "Emilia Galotti" lay open upon his bureau. I shall say nothing of Albert's distress, or of Charlotte's grief. The old steward hastened to the house immediately upon hearing the news: he embraced his dying friend amid a flood of tears. His eldest boys soon followed him on foot. In speechless sorrow they threw themselves on their knees by the bedside, and kissed his hands and face. The eldest, who was his favourite, hung over him till he expired; and even then he was removed by force. At twelve o'clock Werther breathed his last. The presence of the steward, and the precautions he had adopted, prevented a disturbance; and that night, at the hour of eleven, he caused the body to be interred in the place which Werther had selected for himself. The steward and his sons followed the corpse to the grave. Albert was unable to accompany them. Charlotte's life was despaired of. The body was carried by labourers. No priest attended."
Hannah More: The Slave Trade
"Whene'er to Afric's shores I turn my eyes, Horrors of deepest, deadliest guilt arise; I see, by more than Fancy's mirrow shewn, The burning village, and the blazing town: See the dire victim torn from social life, The shrieking babe, the agonizing wife!"
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason
"Whereas the beautiful is limited, the sublime is limitless, so that the mind in the presence of the sublime, attempting to imagine what it cannot, has pain in the failure but pleasure in contemplating the immensity of the attempt"
Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations
"Whether this propensity (to trade or barter) be one of those original principles in human nature, of which no further account can be given... it's common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals."
Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with the Colonies
"Who are you, that you should fret and rage, and bite the chains of nature? Nothing worse happens to you than does to all nations who have extensive empire; and it happens in all the forms into which empire can be thrown."
Hannah More: The Slave Trade
"Why are thy genial beams to parts confin'd? While the chill North with thy bright ray is blest, Why should fell darkness half the South invest? Was it decreed, fair Freedom! at thy birth, That thou shou'd'st ne'er irradiate all the earth? While Britain basks in thy full blaze of light, Why lies sad Afric quench'd in total night?"
Olympe de Gouges: Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Female Citizen
"Woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights. Social distinctions can only be founded on common service."
Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
"Women are, in common with men, rendered weak and luxurious by the relaxing pleasures which wealth procures; but added to this they are made slaves to their persons, and must render them alluring that man may lend them his reason to guide their tottering steps aright."
Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
"Would men but generously snap our chains, and be content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, they would find us more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers -- in a word, better citizens."
Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
"Yet, even in their fallen state, the Jews, still asserting their lofty and exclusive privileges, shunned, instead of courting, the society of strangers."
Voltaire: Candide
"You're a bitter man," said Candide. "That's because I've lived," said Martin.
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
"[Political] virtue, in a republic, is the love of one's country, that is the love of equality...it is the spring with sets the republican government in motion, as honour is the spring with gives motion to monarchy."
Kant: What is Enlightenment?
"a scholar addressing the real public through his writings, the clergyman making public use of his reason enjoys unlimited freedom to use his own reason and to speak in his own person."
Rousseau: The Social Contract
"for luxury either comes of riches or makes them necessary; it corrupts at once rich and poor, the rich by possession and the poor by covetousness; it sells the country to softness and vanity, and takes away from the State all its citizens, to make them slaves one to another, and one and all to public opinion."
Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with the Colonies
"in all monarchies the people must in effect themselves, mediately or immediately, possess the power of granting their own money, or no shadow of liberty could subsist. The colonies draw from you, as with their life-blood, these ideas and principles."
Voltaire: Candide
"—You are perfectly right, said Pangloss; for when man was put into the garden of Eden, he was put there ut operaretur eum, so that he should work it; this proves that man was not born to take his ease. —Let's work without speculating, said Martin; it's the only way of rendering life bearable. The whole little group entered into this laudable scheme; each one began to exercise his talents. The little plot yielded fine crops . . . and Pangloss sometimes used to say to Candide: —All events are linked together in the best of possible worlds; for, after all, if you had not been driven from a fine castle by being kicked in the backside for love of Miss Cunégonde, if you hadn't been sent before the Inquisition, if you hadn't traveled across America on foot, if you hadn't given a good sword thrust to the baron, if you hadn't lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you wouldn't be sitting here eating candied citron and pistachios. —That is very well put, said Candide, but we must go and work our garden."
William Blake: Holy Thursday (from Songs of Experience)
'Twas on a holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean, The children walking two and two, in red, and blue, and green: Grey-headed beadles walked before, with wands as white as snow, Till into the high dome of Paul's they like Thames waters flow. O what a multitude they seemed, these flowers of London town! Seated in companies they sit, with radiance all their own. The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs, Thousands of little boys and girls raising their innocent hands. Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song, Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among: Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor. Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.
Phillis Wheatley: On Being Brought from Africa to America
(FULL POEM) "'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Some view our sable race with scornful eye, "Their colour is a diabolic die." Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train."
John Newton: Amazing Grace
(FULL POEM) "Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound!) That sav'd a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; Was blind, but now I see. 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears reliev'd; How precious did that grace appear, The hour I first believ'd! Thro' many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; 'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home. The Lord has promis'd good to me, His word my hope secures; He will my shield and portion be, As long as life endures. Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail, And mortal life shall cease; I shall possess, within the veil, A life of joy and peace. This earth shall soon dissolve like snow, The sun forbear to shine; But God, who call'd me here below, Will be forever mine. "
Mary Stockdale: Song: Fidelle; or, The Negro Child
(FULL POEM) "An outcast from my native home A helpless maid forlorn, O'er dangerous seas I'm doom'd to roam, From friends and country torn. No mother's smile now sooths my grief; A Christian me beguil'd; But, ah! he scorns to give relief, Or ease a poor black child. My father now, unhappy man! Weeps for his lov'd Fidelle, And wonders much that Christians can Poor negroes buy and sell; O had you heard him beg and pray, And seen his looks so wild! He cried, "O let me bless this day; O spare my darling child." But, O! their hearts were hearts of stone; They tore me from his arms; A Christian savage scoffs the groan Caus'd by a black's alarms. They chain'd me in this dungeon deep, And on my sorrows smil'd, Then left, alas! to sigh and weep, The slave! the negro child."
Phillis Wheatley: To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth
(FULL POEM) "Hail, happy day, when, smiling like the morn, Fair Freedom rose New-England to adorn: The northern clime beneath her genial ray, Dartmouth, congratulates thy blissful sway: Elate with hope her race no longer mourns, Each soul expands, each grateful bosom burns, While in thine hand with pleasure we behold The silken reins, and Freedom's charms unfold. Long lost to realms beneath the northern skies She shines supreme, while hated faction dies: Soon as appear'd the Goddess long desir'd, Sick at the view, she languish'd and expir'd; Thus from the splendors of the morning light The owl in sadness seeks the caves of night. No more, America, in mournful strain Of wrongs, and grievance unredress'd complain, No longer shalt thou dread the iron chain, Which wanton Tyranny with lawless hand Had made, and with it meant t' enslave the land. Should you, my lord, while you peruse my song, Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung, Whence flow these wishes for the common good, By feeling hearts alone best understood, I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat: What pangs excruciating must molest, What sorrows labour in my parent's breast? Steel'd was that soul and by no misery mov'd That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd: Such, such my case. And can I then but pray Others may never feel tyrannic sway? For favours past, great Sir, our thanks are due, And thee we ask thy favours to renew, Since in thy pow'r, as in thy will before, To sooth the griefs, which thou did'st once deplore. May heav'nly grace the sacred sanction give To all thy works, and thou for ever live Not only on the wings of fleeting Fame, Though praise immortal crowns the patriot's name, But to conduct to heav'ns refulgent fane, May fiery coursers sweep th' ethereal plain, And bear thee upwards to that blest abode, Where, like the prophet, thou shalt find thy God."
William Cowper: Pity for Poor Africans
(FULL POEM) "I own I am shock'd at the purchase of slaves, And fear those who buy them and sell them are knaves; What I hear of their hardships, their tortures, and groans Is almost enough to draw pity from stones. I pity them greatly, but I must be mum, For how could we do without sugar and rum? Especially sugar, so needful we see? What? give up our desserts, our coffee, and tea! Besides, if we do, the French, Dutch, and Danes, Will heartily thank us, no doubt, for our pains; If we do not buy the poor creatures, they will, And tortures and groans will be multiplied still. If foreigners likewise would give up the trade, Much more in behalf of your wish might be said; But while they get riches by purchasing blacks, Pray tell me why we may not also go snacks? Your scruples and arguments bring to my mind A story so pat, you may think it is coin'd, On purpose to answer you, out of my mint; But, I can assure you, I saw it in print. A youngster at school, more sedate than the rest, Had once his integrity put to the test; His comrades had plotted an orchard to rob, And ask'd him to go and assist in the job. He was. shock'd,sir, like you, and answer'd -- Oh,no What! rob our good neighbour! I pray you, don't go; Besides, the the man's poor, his orchard's his bread, Then think of his children, for they must be fed." "You speak very fine, and you look very grave, But apples we want, and apples we'll have; If you will go with us, you shall have a share, If not, you shall have neither apple nor pear." They spoke, and Tom ponder'd -- !I see they will go: Poor man! what a pity to injuro him so Poor man! I would save him his fruit if I could, But staying behind will do him no good. "If the matter depended alone upon me, His apples might hang till they dropt from the tree; But, since they will take them, I think I'll go too, He will lose none by me, though I get a few." His scruples thus silenc'd, Tom felt more at ease, And went with his comrades the apples to seize; He blam'd and protested, but join'd in the plan; He shar'd in the plunder, but pitied the man."
William Wordsworth: September 1, 1802
(FULL POEM) "We had a female Passenger who came From Calais with us, spotless in array,-- A white-robed Negro, like a lady gay, Yet downcast as a woman fearing blame; Meek, destitute, as seemed, of hope or aim She sate, from notice turning not away, But on all proffered intercourse did lay A weight of languid speech, or to the same No sign of answer made by word or face: Yet still her eyes retained their tropic fire, That, burning independent of the mind, Joined with the lustre of her rich attire To mock the Outcast.--O ye Heavens, be kind! And feel, thou Earth, for this afflicted Race!"
William Wordsworth: To Toussaint l'Ouverture
(FULL POEM) "______, the most unhappy man of men! Whether the whistling Rustic tend his plough Within thy hearing, or thy head be now Pillowed in some deep dungeon's earless den;— O miserable Chieftain! where and when Wilt thou find patience? Yet die not; do thou Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow: Though fallen thyself, never to rise again, Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies; There's not a breathing of the common wind That will forget thee; thou hast great allies; Thy friends are exultations, agonies, And love, and man's unconquerable mind."
William Cowper: The Negro's Complaint
(FULL POEM) FORCED from home and all its pleasures Afric's coast I left forlorn, To increase a stranger's treasures O'er the raging billows borne. Men from England bought and sold me, Paid my price in paltry gold; But, though slave they have enrolled me, Minds are never to be sold. Still in thought as free as ever, What are England's rights, I ask, Me from my delights to sever, Me to torture, me to task ? Fleecy locks and black complexion Cannot forfeit nature's claim; Skins may differ, but affection Dwells in white and black the same. Why did all-creating nature Make the plant for which we toil? Sighs must fan it, tears must water, Sweat of ours must dress the soil. Think, ye masters iron-hearted, Lolling at your jovial boards, Think how many backs have smarted For the sweets your cane affords. Is there, as ye sometimes tell us, Is there One who reigns on high? Has He bid you buy and sell us, Speaking from his throne, the sky? Ask him, if your knotted scourges, Matches, blood-extorting screws, Are the means that duty urges Agents of his will to use? Hark! He answers!--Wild tornadoes Strewing yonder sea with wrecks, Wasting towns, plantations, meadows, Are the voice with which he speaks. He, foreseeing what vexations Afric's sons should undergo, Fixed their tyrants' habitations Where his whirlwinds answer--"No." By our blood in Afric wasted Ere our necks received the chain; By the miseries that we tasted, Crossing in your barks the main; By our sufferings, since ye brought us To the man-degrading mart, All sustained by patience, taught us Only by a broken heart; Deem our nation brutes no longer, Till some reason ye shall find Worthier of regard and stronger Than the colour of our kind. Slaves of gold, whose sordid dealings Tarnish all your boasted powers, Prove that you have human feelings, Ere you proudly question ours!
Locke: Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Any mischief that stems from the age rather than the character of the child should not be punished. It is better to punish children too little than too much.
Locke: Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Children have a tendency to torture small animals. This sort of pleasure should be eliminated as soon as possible, because it will lead to cruelty and oppression of human beings later in life. Another important way in which to ensure that the child grows up with humane sentiments is to have them treat the servants decently.
George Washington: Farewell Address
Direct response to the fractioning of the American people. From a Federalist point of view he extolled the virtues of neutrality. He gave advice for American political neutrality, where people vote not based on parties but on a particular candidate's merit and credentials. He also advised for international neutrality, hoping that that would remove divisiveness of American foreign policy.
Locke: Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Habit and example are important in education,while the role of rules of isn't. Children generally do not understand rules, nor can they remember them. Teaching by rules, therefore, is counterproductive.
Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
I grew convinced that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost performance to the felicity of life; and I formed written resolutions, which still remain in my journal book, to practice them ever while I lived."
William Blake: London (from Songs of Experience)
I wander through each chartered street, Near where the chartered Thames does flow, A mark in every face I meet, Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every man, In every infant's cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forged manacles I hear: How the chimney-sweeper's cry Every blackening church appals, And the hapless soldier's sigh Runs in blood down palace-walls. But most, through midnight streets I hear How the youthful harlot's curse Blasts the new-born infant's tear, And blights with plagues the marriage hearse.
increases dexterity of each workman, saves time in transitioning between types of work, facilitates technological innovation in task
In Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations," name some reasons why division of labor leads to "universal opulence."
market, wealth, uncultivated, order, government
In Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations," three ways that the increase and riches of commercial and manufacturing towns contributed to the improvement and cultivation of the countries in which they belong are: (1) Providing a _____ for the rude produce of the country, encouraging its cultivation. (2) ______ acquired by inhabitants of cities was frequently employed in purchasing lands previously _____. (3) Commerce and manufactures gradually introduced _____ and good ______, and with them liberty and security of individuals, whereas previously many lived in an almost continual state of war with their neighbors.
defense (protection from violence or invasion of other societies), justice (protection from injustice or oppression), public works
In Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations," what are the 3 duties of the Sovereign or Commonwealth?
merchants, artificers and manufacturers
In Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations," what is the "unproductive class"?
mercantile
In Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations," what type of economic system does he detest?
republics, monarchies
In David Hume's "Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences," he notes that the general population is more impressed by scientific discoveries with obvious technological applications than by artistic creations. Therefore the sciences progress more quickly in ______ than in _____
civilized monarchies
In David Hume's "Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences," he writes that although the arts and sciences have their rise in republics, they may be transplanted into _______ and continue to improve in that environment. (1) are those that have learned the rule of law from neighboring republics. The arts progress more quickly in (1) than in republics, because they are useful for flattering monarchs.
Laputa (The Laputians are dedicated to only two things, mathematics and music. But their love of equations makes them really poor at practical things, so no one in the kingdom can make a good suit of clothes or build a house. And in imitation of the Laputians' abstract science, the residents of the continent below, Balnibarbi, have been steadily ruining their farms and buildings with newfangled "reforms.")
In Gulliver's Travels, what is the name of the floating island with impractical people who only love math and music?
Glubbdubdrib
In Gulliver's Travels, what is the name of the floating island with sorcerers where he meets the ghosts of famous historical figures?
Luggnagg
In Gulliver's Travels, what is the name of the island with an absolute king and unfortunate, unhappy immortals?
Brobdingnag (The Brobdingnag are giants 60 feet tall, who treat Gulliver like an attraction at a fair. Gulliver comes to the attention of the Brobdingnagian Queen, who keeps him like a kind of pet. She is amused, because he is so tiny and yet still manages to speak and act like a real person. This Queen employs a young girl, Glumdalclitch, to look after Gulliver and teach him their language. Glumdalclitch does this with great affection. While Gulliver lives at the palace, he is constantly in danger: bees the size of pigeons almost stab him, a puppy almost tramples him to death, a monkey mistakes him for a baby monkey and tries to stuff him full of food. Because Gulliver feels ridiculous all the time, he starts to lose some of the pride and self-importance he couldn't help having in Lilliput. The Brobdingnagian King reinforces this new sense of humility. After Gulliver describes to him all that he can think of about English culture and history, the King of Brobdingnag decides that the English sound like tiny little pests. He absolutely refuses to accept Gulliver's gift of gunpowder because such weapons seem like an invitation to horrible violence and abuse.)
In Gulliver's Travels, what is the name of the island with giants where Gulliver is tiny?
Lilliput (This island, Lilliput, has a population of tiny people about 6 inches tall. They capture Gulliver as he sleeps and carry him to their capital city, where they keep him chained inside a large abandoned temple outside the city walls. Gulliver becomes a great friend of the Emperor of Lilliput, who introduces Gulliver to many of their customs. For example, instead of staffing his cabinet with capable administrators, the Emperor chooses guys who perform best at a dangerous kind of rope dancing. The Emperor asks Gulliver to help him in his war against Blefuscu, a similarly tiny kingdom across a channel of water. Gulliver agrees and uses his huge size to capture all of Blefuscu's navy. In spite of the great service that Gulliver has done for the Lilliputians, he has two terrible enemies, who seem to be jealous of his strength and favor with the Emperor: the admiral Skyresh Bolgolam and the treasurer Flimnap. These two men conspire to influence the Emperor to have Gulliver executed. They serve Gulliver with a series of Articles of Impeachment, with the final sentence that Gulliver is going to be blinded. (The ministers also decide, in secret, that they are going to starve Gulliver to save money on the enormous amount of food he eats.) Gulliver is informed of this plot against him by a friend at the Lilliputian court. He manages to escape to the island of Blefuscu. Fortunately for him, a human-sized boat washes ashore on Blefuscu. Gulliver rows to nearby Australia and finds a boat to take him back to England.)
In Gulliver's Travels, what is the name of the island with little people where Gulliver is huge?
nature, war
In John Locke's Two Treatises of Government, the state of _____ involves people living together, governed by reason, without need of a common superior. The state of _____ occurs when people exert unwelcome force on other people, interfering with their own natural rights and freedom, without common authority.
a common established law, a known and impartial body to give judgment, and the power to support such judgments.
In John Locke's Two Treatises of Government, what are the three elements necessary for a civil society?
The difference between war in society and war in nature depends on when they end. In society, war ends when the act of force, such as fighting, is over and then parties appeal to common authority for a final resolution. But in nature, war does not end until the aggressive party offers peace and offers to repair the damage done. Locke claims that one of the major reasons people enter into society is to avoid the state of war.
In John Locke's Two Treatises of Government, what is the difference between war in society and war in nature?
Yahoos, Houyhnhnms
In Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", Gulliver sails out as a captain in his own right, but his sailors quickly mutiny against him and maroon him on a distant island. This island is home to two kinds of creatures: (a) the beastly ______, violent, lying, disgusting animals; and (b) the ______, who look like horses. The (b) govern themselves with absolute reason. They do not even have words for human problems like disease, deception, or war. As for the (a) - they are human beings. They are just like Gulliver, except that Gulliver has learned to clip his nails, shave his face, and wear clothes. In (b) Land, Gulliver finally realizes the true depths of human awfulness. He grows so used to the (b) way of life that, when the (b) finally tell him he must leave, he immediately faints. Gulliver obediently leaves the land of the (b), where he has been very happy, but he is so disgusted with human company that he nearly jumps off the Portuguese ship carrying home. Lesson learned from Gulliver's Travels: the more we see of humans, the less we want to be one.
analytic, synthetic
In Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason," In an ______ judgment, the concept in the predicate is contained in the concept in the subject, as, for instance, in the judgment, "a bachelor is an unmarried man." (In this context, predicate refers to whatever is being said about the subject of the sentence—for instance, "is an unmarried man.") In a ________ judgment, the predicate concept contains information not contained in the subject concept, and so a synthetic judgment is informative rather than just definitional. Typically, we associate a posteriori knowledge with (2) judgments and a priori knowledge with (1) judgments. For instance, the judgment "all swans are white" is (2) because whiteness is not a part of the concept of "swan" (a black swan would still be a swan even though it isn't white), but it is also a posteriori because we can only find out if all swans are white from experience.
a posteriori, a priori
In Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason," ______ knowledge is the particular knowledge we gain from experience, and _______ knowledge is the necessary and universal knowledge we have independent of experience, such as our knowledge of mathematics.
the faculty or capacity for judging in accord with a rule, for applying concepts
In Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason," what is apperception?
pure religious, church, historical
In Kant's "Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason," (1) _____ faith is the only one that can establish a universal church; (2) _____ faith is a vehicle of (1) faith and a means to the public union of human beings for furthering it, and (3) _____ faith is based merely on facts.
civil government, religion
In Locke's "A Letter Concerning Toleration," his primary goal is to distinguish exactly the business of ____ _____ from that of _____.
individuals cannot divest control over their souls to secular forces (as God does not appoint the magistrate), force cannot create the change necessary for salvation (because while it can coerce obedience, it cannot change one's beliefs), even if coercion could persuade someone of a notion, it would not help with ensuring salvation (because there is no reason to believe that magistrates are reliable judges of religious truth.)
In Locke's "A Letter Concerning Toleration," what are three reasons that the government should not involve itself in the care of souls?
atheists, the Roman Catholic Church
In Locke's "A Letter Concerning Toleration," which two groups should NOT be tolerated because "promises, covenants, and oaths, which are the bonds of human society, can have no hold upon a(n) (1)_______" and "all those who enter into _________ do thereby ipso facto deliver themselves up to the protection and service of another prince"
curiosity, wisdom
In Locke's "Some Thoughts Concerning Education," (1) _____ is an appetite for knowledge, the great instrument that nature provided us with in order to remove our ignorance. It should be encouraged as much as possible. (2) _____ is the ability to manage one's business ably and with foresight. The components of (2) are a good natural temperament, an application of the mind, and experience. Children cannot be (2) because children have no experience to draw on. However, parents can lay the groundwork for making children (2) in the future.
virtuous
In Locke's "Some Thoughts Concerning Education," the purpose of education is not to create a scholar, but a ______ man.
factions
In Madison's "Federalist 10," one of the strongest arguments in favor of the Constitution is the fact that it establishes a government capable of controlling the violence and damage caused by _______.
representation (in a republic, citizens elect a small number of themselves as delegates to a government.) and size (republics are generally larger and have greater sphere of country than democracies.)
In Madison's "Federalist 10," what is the difference between a democracy and a republic?
great success
In Montesquieu's "Spirit of the Laws," _______ corrupts the people because it makes them jealous and ambitious
virtue, virtue, honor, fear
In Montesquieu's "Spirit of the Laws," ________ (to avoid ambition/anarchy) is the principle of democracy, ________ (to show restraint) is the principle of aristocracy, _______ is the principle of monarchical government, and _______ is the principle of despotic governments
democracies and aristocracies
In Montesquieu's "Spirit of the Laws," what form of government is slavery most contrary to?
vanity
In Montesquieu's "Spirit of the Laws," which is more advantageous for a government - vanity or pride?
amour propre
In Rousseau's "Discourse on the Origin of Inequality," as men begin to form societies, this precipitates the development of a new, negative motivating principle for human actions. Rousseau calls this principle ______ (two words), and it drives men to compare themselves to others. Comparison drives men to seek domination over their fellow human beings as a way of augmenting their own happiness.
pity and self-preservation
In Rousseau's "Discourse on the Origin of Inequality," what are the two main motivating principles driving man in the state of nature?
undermine religious faith and patriotism, weaken the courage and manliness that is natural to men
In Rousseau's "Discourse on the Sciences and Arts," what are two effects of learning?
monarchy, aristocracies, democracy
In Rousseau's "The Social Contract," different states are suited to different forms of governments. ______ is the strongest form of government, and is best suited to large populations and hot climate. ______ tend to be the most stable. _____ is better for small states
impartial, non-citizen, liberty, equality
In Rousseau's "The Social Contract," he says that early in a state's life, general and abstract laws that fulfill the general will should be created by an ______, _______ lawgiver; laws must ensure _______ and _______
meeting in regular, periodic assemblies
In Rousseau's "The Social Contract," the people exercise their sovereignty by _______
the collective grouping of all citizens
In Rousseau's "The Social Contract," what does he define as the "sovereign"? The sovereign (which is distinct from the government) expresses the general will that aims for the common good and has absolute authority over matters that are of public concern.
social contract
In Thomas Hobbes' "Leviathan," civil peace and social unity are best achieved by the establishment of a commonwealth through a _______. Hobbes's ideal commonwealth is ruled by a sovereign power responsible for protecting the security of the commonwealth and granted absolute authority to ensure the common defense.
war
In Thomas Hobbes' "Leviathan," he believes that men's natural state is a state of ______. In this state of _____, there is no concept of right and wrong, justice or injustice.
Competition (for gain), diffidence (for safety), and glory (for reputation).
In Thomas Hobbes' "Leviathan," what are the three causes of quarrel for man?
Rousseau: Discourse on the Sciences and Arts
In this author/writing, he writes that arts and sciences corrupt human morality. The new arts and sciences give the appearance but not the reality of virtue, which he holds to be the true value of civilization. Humans in a state of nature were moral and generally good, because in their primitive simplicity they could not deceive one another. The arts and sciences, then, undermine that basic morality, being created throughout history to disguise our vices.
Rousseau: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
In this author/writing, the author describes all the sorts of inequality that exist among human beings and attempts to determine which sorts of inequalities are "natural" and which "unnatural" (and therefore preventable). The only natural inequality among men is the inequality that results from differences in physical strength but modern societies with their creation of laws and property have corrupted natural men and created new forms of inequality that are not in accordance with natural law
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
In this book, someone travels to an island where academics/thinkers rule but people are miserable, then a second location where he discovers old praised thinkers aren't as impressive, and finally a location where he finds that being immortal isn't much of a positive. - Laputa: the main character sets sail again after an attack by pirates, ends up in Laputa, a floating island inhabited by theoreticians and academics. - Laputa & Balnibarbi: The King of these peoples oppresses the land below, called Balnibarbi. The scientific research undertaken in Laputa and in Balnibarbi seems totally inane and impractical, and its residents appear wholly out of touch with reality. - Glubbdubdrib: the main character takes a side trip to Glubbdubdrib, where he the magical King and his aides allow him to conjure up of figures from history, such as Julius Caesar and other military leaders, whom he finds much less impressive than in books. - Luggnagg: The main character then returns to Luggnagg where he meets the Struldbrugs which are immortal people. He first fantasizes with how good being immortal must be but discovers that senile immortals who prove that age does not bring wisdom and instead brings misery.
the divine right of kings
John Locke's First Treatise is a criticism of Robert Filmer's Patriarcha, which argues in support of _______. Filmer's theory holds that every man is born a slave to the natural born kings. There'd be no need for kings when every man has reason and the ability to virtuously govern himself according to God's law. The Second Treatise is Locke's proposed solution to the political upheaval in England and in other modern countries.
William Blake: The Lamb (from Songs of Innocence)
Little lamb, who made thee? Does thou know who made thee, Gave thee life, and bid thee feed By the stream and o'er the mead; Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing, woolly, bright; Gave thee such a tender voice, Making all the vales rejoice? Little lamb, who made thee? Does thou know who made thee? Little lamb, I'll tell thee; Little lamb, I'll tell thee: He is callèd by thy name, For He calls Himself a Lamb. He is meek, and He is mild, He became a little child. I a child, and thou a lamb, We are callèd by His name. Little lamb, God bless thee! Little lamb, God bless thee!
Rousseau: The Social Contract
Modern states repress the physical freedom that is our birthright, and do nothing to secure the civil freedom for the sake of which we enter into civil society. Solution can come only from a social contract agreed upon by all citizens for their mutual preservation.
William Blake: The Little Black Boy (from Songs of Innocence)
My mother bore me in the southern wild, And I am black, but O my soul is white! White as an angel is the English child, But I am black, as if bereaved of light. My mother taught me underneath a tree, And, sitting down before the heat of day, She took me on her lap and kissèd me, And, pointing to the East, began to say: 'Look on the rising sun: there God does live, And gives His light, and gives His heat away, And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive Comfort in morning, joy in the noonday. 'And we are put on earth a little space, That we may learn to bear the beams of love; And these black bodies and this sunburnt face Are but a cloud, and like a shady grove. p. 8'For, when our souls have learned the heat to bear, The cloud will vanish, we shall hear His voice, Saying, "Come out from the grove, my love and care, And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice."' Thus did my mother say, and kissed me, And thus I say to little English boy. When I from black, and he from white cloud free, And round the tent of God like lambs we joy, I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear To lean in joy upon our Father's knee; And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair, And be like him, and he will then love me.
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason - of the impossibility of an cosmological proof of the existence of God
On the Cosmological proof: - If something exists, then an absolutely necessary Being exists. - I myself, at least, exist. - Therefore, an absolutely necessary Being exists. The author argues that this relies on the ontological proof, which has already been disproven. Furthermore, the author thinks the argument relies on dialectical assumptions that include attempting to infer from the contingent (within experience) to some cause lying outside the world of sense altogether, and also attempting to infer from the conceptual impossibility of an infinite series of causes to some actual first cause outside of sense.
Voltaire: Candide
Philosophical tale known for its satirical and ironic elements. ______, whose name refers to "white" purity and fair-mindedness, embodies the philosophical idea of optimism that the author intends to oppose. The author sarcastically attacks philosophical optimism and errors of Enlightenment philosophy, including the interplay of cause and effect, the idea that an all-good all-powerful God created the perfect world. When humans believe something as evil, it is because they don't understand the ultimate good that evil is meant to serve in the grand scheme of things.
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason - of the impossibility of an ontological proof of the existence of God
Proof: - God, ens realissum, is the concept of a being that contains all predicates (attributes). - Existence is a predicate. - Therefore, God exists. The author argues that existence is not a predicate. We cannot accept a mere concept or idea as being a real, external thing. The predicate of existence adds something to the subject that increases the concept so much as to transform it; piling attributes onto a concept does not bring us any closer to proving its existence. The author makes a clear distinction between "in mind", a priori questions and "in reality", a posteriori questions.
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason - of the impossibility of a physico-theological proof of the existence of God
Proof: - The particular constitution of the world, specifically its beauty, order and all-purposefulness points to the necessary existence of an intelligent cause, God. The author says that this again depends on ontological proof. The transcendental idea of a necessary all-sufficient being is so overwhelmingly great, so sublimely above anything that's empirical, that one can never procure enough evidence in experience to prove such a concept.
ontological proof of God's existence
Term: God exists because he is perfect. If he didn't exist, he would be less than perfect.
cosmological proof of God's existence
Term: If anything exists in the cosmos, then there must be an absolutely necessary Being. There is only one concept of an absolutely necessary object. That is the concept of a Supreme Being who has maximum reality.
physico-theological ("watchmaker") proof of God's existence
Term: The objects in the world have been intentionally arranged with great wisdom. The fitness of this arrangement could never have occurred randomly, without purpose. The world must have been caused by an intelligent power. The unity of the relation between all of the parts of the world leads us to infer that there is only one cause of everything. That one cause is a perfect, mighty, wise, and self-sufficient Being. In the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant attempts to disprove the non-existence of God since no one can prove the non-existence of God.
David Hume: Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences
The arts and sciences cannot progress indefinitely in a single country. One they reach a certain height, members of the next generation are too intimidated by their predecessors to strike out on their own
Locke: Some Thoughts Concerning Education
The best way to encourage a sense of justice in children by encouraging generosity, since it is impossible to understand what injustice is until you understand the concept of property.
Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
There are five reasons that explain Christianity's growth and predominance in Rome: 1) Christians had a duty acquire more followers to their religion and although derived from the Jewish religion, it had less stringent laws and requirements; anybody from a noble to a man of the street could become a christian 2) Promised people who followed the religion a perfect afterlife (heaven) and warned those that didn't follow it with a terrible afterlife (hell) 3) miraculous powers that were attributed to the Church, for example stories of Jesus saving others 4) the pure and strict morals that early Christians had; there were stories of criminals that after being baptised were completely changed 5) the union and discipline of the Christian republic/church, which formed an independent and increasing state in the Roman Empire. There was a great deal of organization (i.e. establishment of clergy, bishop, places of worship)
Madison: Federalist 10
There are only two ways to remove the causes of a faction: destroy liberty or give every citizen the same opinions, passions, and interests. Destroying liberty is a "cure worse than the disease itself," and the second is impracticable. The causes of factions are thus part of the nature of man and we must deal with their effects and accept their existence.
Diderot and d'Alembert: Encyclopédie
This author(s)/writing proposed a document that would work as a collection of the all the knowledge of the world assembled by masters of every craft. Its aim was "to change the way people think." Thinkers can discuss their thoughts on various topics through the lens of scientific breakdown. Teachings of the Catholic Church should not be treated as authoritative in matters of science. Neither should decisions of political powers be treated as definitive in intellectual or artistic questions.
Benjamin Franklin: A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge Among the British Plantations in America
This author/writing envisioned a colonies-wide society for the discussion and promotion of science. He saw great opportunity for scientific pursuit and technological innovation, but without a mechanism to communicate new ideas and discoveries, they "are widely separated, and seldom can see and converse, or be acquainted, with each other, so that many useful particulars remain uncommunicated, die with the Discoverers and are lost to Mankind."
Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther
This author/writing is a semi-autobiography that reflects the author's attempt to escape a younger part of himself. It consists of letters written to a friend, Wilhelm. It is all about Romanticism, a direct response to the Enlightenment thinking that came just before it, which values emotional experience over rationality and experiencing nature instead of city life.
Samuel Johnson: Rasselas
This author/writing is a tale about a prince who grows up in the lap of luxury who wishes to see the world. He, a learned man Imlac, his sister Nekayah and her friend Pekuah go on a journey to Cairo where they purchase a house and establish themselves, drawing the admiration of other elites. After awhile, the main character starts searching for "true happiness" and experiments with a variety of different lifestyles. After observing and living with a variety of people, Imlac urges them to go see the ancient ruins and monuments to learn about history. Pekuah is abducted at the pyramids but then restored. After her release, all decide on what would bring them true happiness. Pekuah chooses a convent, Nekayah chooses knowledge, the Prince would like a little kingdom where he could administer justice. Knowing that they will never obtain these things, they finally journey back home.
Lessing: Nathan the Wise
This author/writing is set in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade, it describes how the wise Jewish merchant Nathan, the enlightened sultan Saladin, and the (initially anonymous) Templar bridge their gaps between Judaism, Islam and Christianity. It is a plea for religious tolerance.
Locke: Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Though every mind is born with particular inclinations (some are lazy, some industrious, some timid, some brave, and so on) the mind of a child is malleable, and education can form it significantly. The differences in man can be found to be due to their education; we can form a child mind such that it will have an huge influence on his life Learning should be enjoyable. There is no good reason that children should hate to learn and love to play.
Hobbes, Montesquieu
Unlike ______, ______ believes that man in the state of nature is impotent, weak, and fearful → peace is the first law of nature. It is only when man enters into society he loses the sense of his weakness; equality ceases, and then commences the state of war.
Adam Smith: Theory of Moral Sentiments
We judge the opinions of others as correct or incorrect merely by determining whether they agree with our own opinions.
Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther
Werther begins his letters in a happy mood after having escaped from a sticky romantic situation with Leonora. He is an artist who heads for rural solitude, intending to spend time painting, sketching and living the chill life. He admires the easy lifestyle of the peasant class. In a nearby village Wahlheim, he falls for Lotte, daughter of a land steward. Happily engaged to Albert, however, she cannot return his affections. Lotte is eldest of eight children, carries responsibility of caring for her siblings after their mother's death. Werther develops a friendship with Albert whom he finds to be intelligent, sensible, upstanding and open-minded. Werther becomes increasingly infatuated. Distressed, he leaves to take an official court position. He hates the hierarchies of his new job, where the aristocratic class rules over all. He meets two aristocrats Count C and Fraulein von B. At one of C's parties, the aristocrats including von B snubs and humiliates Werther. He soon resigns, and can't help but return to Wahlheim. Lotte tells Werther that he must stop coming around to see her after he tries to kiss her instead of remaining platonic friends. Werther writes letter to Lotte asking for Albert's hunting pistols to shoot himself in the head with.
proportionality, transparency, convenience, efficiency
What are Adam Smith's 4 maxims for taxation?
William Blake: The Chimney Sweeper (from Songs of Experience)
When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue Could scarcely cry 'Weep! weep! weep! weep!' So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep. There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head, That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved; so I said, 'Hush, Tom! never mind it, for, when your head's bare, You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.' And so he was quiet, and that very night, As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!— That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack, Were all of them locked up in coffins of black. And by came an angel, who had a bright key, And he opened the coffins, and set them all free; Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing, they run And wash in a river, and shine in the sun. p. 11Then naked and white, all their bags left behind, They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind: And the angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy, He'd have God for his father, and never want joy. And so Tom awoke, and we rose in the dark, And got with our bags and our brushes to work. Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm: So, if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.
Montesquieu
________ believed that the Roman Empire fell because it became too big to control; the costs of its military expansion introduced corruption and the loyalty of its soldiers was transferred from the City to its generals.
Adam Smith: Theory of Moral Sentiments
Humans have a natural tendency for sympathy: to care about the well-being of others for no other reason than the pleasure one gets from seeing them happy. This happens when we witness firsthand the fortune or misfortune of the other person, or the fortune or misfortune is vividly depicted to us. Sympathizing is pleasurable, and failing to sympathize hurts.
gratitude, resentment, beneficient, unjust
In Adam Smith's "Theory of Moral Sentiments," _______ and _______ are the sentiments that most directly prompt us to reward or punish, in particular by our own hand. _______ actions are the proper object of gratitude, and _______ actions are the proper object of resentment.
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
Monarchies are corrupted when the prince insensibly deprives societies or cities of their privileges, when great men are deprived of public respect and rendered low tools of arbitrary power, or when honor is set up in contradiction to honors, and men are capable of being loaded simultaneously with infamy and dignities.