"The tongue may be employed about, and made to serve all the purposes of vice, in tempting and deceiving, in perjury and injustice."
"Compassion is a call, a demand of nature, to relieve the unhappy as hunger is a natural call for food"
Source: Joseph Butler (2012). “Human Nature and other Sermons”, p.43, Simon and Schuster
About the author
Joseph Butler
Philosopher, Theologian
Joseph Butler was an 18th-century philosopher known for his influential work on ethics and moral psychology, particularly in 'Fifteen Sermons.'
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"Pain and sorrow and misery have a right to our assistance: compassion puts us in mind of the debt, and that we owe it to ourselves as well as to the distressed."
"Things and actions are what they are, and the consequences of them will be what they will be: why then should we desire to be deceived?"
"But to us, probability is the very guide of life."
"Happiness or satisfaction consists only in the enjoyment of those objects which are by nature suited to our several particular appetites, passions, and affections."
"Every man is to be considered in two capacities, the private and public; as designed to pursue his own interest, and likewise to contribute to the good of others."