“ A man that has lost a friend and patron may flatter himself that all his grief arises from generous sentiments, without any mixture of narrow or interested considerations: but a man that grieves for a valuable friend, who needed his patronage and protection ”
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). copy citation
Author | David Hume |
---|---|
Source | An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals |
Topic | protection grief |
Date | 1751 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4320/4320-h/4320-h.htm |
Context
“Our predominant motive or intention is, indeed, frequently concealed from ourselves when it is mingled and confounded with other motives which the mind, from vanity or self-conceit, is desirous of supposing more prevalent: but there is no instance that a concealment of this nature has ever arisen from the abstruseness and intricacy of the motive. A man that has lost a friend and patron may flatter himself that all his grief arises from generous sentiments, without any mixture of narrow or interested considerations: but a man that grieves for a valuable friend, who needed his patronage and protection; how can we suppose, that his passionate tenderness arises from some metaphysical regards to a self-interest, which has no foundation or reality? We may as well imagine that minute wheels and springs, like those of a watch, give motion to a loaded waggon, as account for the origin of passion from such abstruse reflections.”
source