“ just as a youth can grow into an old man, but an old man can not grow into a youth. ”
John Stuart Mill, A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive (1843). copy citation
| Author | John Stuart Mill |
|---|---|
| Source | A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive |
| Topic | youth |
| Date | 1843 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27942/27942-h/27942-h.html |
Context
“as when a complex passion is formed by the coalition of several elementary impulses, or a complex emotion by several simple pleasures or pains, of which it is the result without being the aggregate, or in any respect homogeneous with them. The product, in these cases, is generated by its various factors; but the factors can not be reproduced from the product; just as a youth can grow into an old man, but an old man can not grow into a youth. We can not ascertain from what simple feelings any of our complex states of mind are generated, as we ascertain the ingredients of a chemical compound, by making it, in its turn, generate them. We can only, therefore, discover these laws by the slow process of studying the simple feelings themselves, and ascertaining synthetically, by experimenting on the various combinations of which they are susceptible, what they, by their mutual action upon one another, are capable of generating.”
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