“ Wherever there is feeling and intelligence, there is some sort of moral order. The difference is this: the good man orders his life with regard to all men; the wicked orders it for self alone. ”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, or On Education (1762). copy citation
Author | Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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Source | Emile, or On Education |
Topic | intelligence difference |
Date | 1762 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | Translated by Barbara Foxley |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5427/pg5427-images.html |
Context
“But can this love prevail over my love for my own well-being, and ought it so to prevail? Let them give me clear and sufficient reason for this preference. Their so-called principle is in truth a mere playing with words; for I also say that vice is love of order, differently understood. Wherever there is feeling and intelligence, there is some sort of moral order. The difference is this: the good man orders his life with regard to all men; the wicked orders it for self alone. The latter centres all things round himself; the other measures his radius and remains on the circumference. Thus his place depends on the common centre, which is God, and on all the concentric circles which are His creatures.”
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