Kindness or esteem, and the appetite to generation, are too remote to unite easily together.
 David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (1738). copy citation

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Author David Hume
Source A Treatise of Human Nature
Topic kindness self-esteem
Date 1738
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4705/4705-h/4705-h.htm

Context

“as there are many, who begin with kindness and esteem for the wit and merit of the person, and advance from that to the other passions. But the most common species of love is that which first arises from beauty, and afterwards diffuses itself into kindness and into the bodily appetite. Kindness or esteem, and the appetite to generation, are too remote to unite easily together. The one is, perhaps, the most refined passion of the soul; the other the most gross and vulgar. The love of beauty is placed in a just medium betwixt them, and partakes of both their natures: From whence it proceeds, that it is so singularly fitted to produce both.” source