QuoteProject
A belligerent state permits itself every such misdeed, every such act of violence, as would disgrace the individual.
Sigmund Freud
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that a state can justify actions that are immoral for individuals, highlighting a double standard in moral behavior.

Sigmund Freud's quote points to the idea that a state, driven by its own interests, often engages in violent and immoral acts that would be considered disgraceful if committed by an individual. This reflects a troubling disparity in moral standards, where the collective actions of a state can overshadow individual accountability, raising questions about ethics in governance and the implications of state power on moral judgment.

Themes

StateViolenceMoralEthicsPower

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about war crimes during a political debate.

More from Sigmund Freud

"He sido un hombre afortunado en la vida, nada me ha sido facil." "I've been a fortunate man in life, nothing has come easy"
Sigmund FreudRead
I take up the standpoint that the tendency to aggression is an innate, independent, instinctual disposition in man, and I come back now to the statement that it constitutes the most powerful obstacle to culture.
Sigmund FreudRead
One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.
Sigmund FreudRead
We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love, never so forlornly unhappy as when we have lost our love object or its love.
Sigmund FreudRead
I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection.
Sigmund FreudRead
The tendency to aggression is an innate, independent, instinctual disposition in man... it constitutes the powerful obstacle to culture.
Sigmund FreudRead

Similar quotes

If there be a God and one has never sought him, it will be small consolation to remember that one could not get proof of his existence.
George MacdonaldRead
To bring about destruction by overcrowding, mass starvation, anarchy, the destruction of our most cherished values, there is no need to do anything. We need only do nothing except what comes naturally, and breed. And how easy it is to do nothing
Isaac AsimovRead
What are men to rocks and mountains?
Jane AustenRead
Gentle reader, the Fountain of Youth is radioactive, and those who imbibe its poisonous heavy waters will suffer the hideous fate of decaying metal. Yet almost without exception, the wretched idiot inhabitants of our benighted planet would gulp down this radioactive excrement if it were offered.
William S. BurroughsRead
The Greeks are wrong to recognize coming into being and perishing; for nothing comes into being nor perishes, but is rather compounded or dissolved from things that are. So they would be right to call coming into being composition and perishing dissolution.
AnaxagorasRead
He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.
Charles DarwinRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.