for terror never cures selfishness, but increases it.
 George Sand, The Devil's Pool (1846). copy citation

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Author George Sand
Source The Devil's Pool
Topic selfishness terror
Date 1846
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Jane Minot Sedgwick and Ellery Sedgwick
Weblink https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Devils_Pool_(1895)

Context

“In the literature of the mysteries of iniquity, which talent and imagination have brought into fashion, we prefer the sweet and gentle characters, which can attempt and effect conversions, to the melodramatic villains, who inspire terror; for terror never cures selfishness, but increases it. We believe that the mission of art is a mission of sentiment and love, that the novel of to-day should take the place of the parable and the fable of early times, and that the artist has a larger and more poetic task than that of suggesting certain prudential and conciliatory measures for the purpose of diminishing the fright caused by his pictures.” source