Your corn is ripe today; mine will be so tomorrow. 'Tis profitable for us both, that I should labour with you today, and that you should aid me tomorrow.
David HumeRead
The corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst.
Interpretation
What this quote means
When the best qualities are corrupted, it can lead to the worst outcomes.
David Humeβs quote suggests that the degradation or corruption of virtuous and valuable qualities can result in negative consequences. This underlines the importance of preserving integrity and goodness, as their loss can give way to detrimental outcomes, reflecting a deeper philosophical understanding of morality and the nature of humanity.
Themes
CorruptionMoralityIntegrityConsequencesVirtue
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about ethics in business, one could say, 'Remember, the corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst.'
More from David Hume
All quotes βEloquence, at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection, but addresses itself entirely to the desires and affections, captivating the willing hearers, and subduing their understanding.
David HumeRead
All that belongs to human understanding, in this deep ignorance and obscurity, is to be sceptical, or at least cautious, and not to admit of any hypothesis whatever, much less of any which is supported by no appearance of probability.
David HumeRead
The great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness
David HumeRead
There is a very remarkable inclination in human nature to bestow on external objects the same emotions which it observes in itself, and to find every where those ideas which are most present to it.
David HumeRead
To have recourse to the veracity of the supreme Being, in order to prove the veracity of our senses, is surely making a very unexpected circuit.
David HumeRead
Similar quotes
See one promontory, one mountain, one sea, one river and see all.
SocratesRead
Our Constitution is in actual operation; everything appears to promise that it will last; but in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
Benjamin FranklinRead
It is often seen that in households where all members are exposed to the same danger, or again in schools or troops where everyone lives the same life, disease does not strike everyone indifferently.
Elie MetchnikoffRead
What makes a nation great is not primarily its great men, but the stature of its innumerable mediocre ones.
Jose Ortega Y GassetRead
I believe every act of violence is also a message that needs to be understood. Violence should not be answered just by greater violence but by real understanding. We must ask: 'Where is the violence coming from? What is its meaning?
Jean VanierRead
I am opposed to all forms of control; I am for an absolute laissez faire, free, unregulated economy. I am for the separation of the state and economics, just as we had separation of state and church, which led to peaceful coexistence among different religions...so the same applies to economics. If you separate the government from economics, if you do not regulate production and trade, you will have peaceful cooperation, and harmony and justice among men.
Ayn RandRead