We ought not to extract pernicious honey from poison blossoms of misrepresentation and mendacious half-truth, to pamper the course appetite of bigotry and self-love.
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeRead
The doing evil to avoid an evil cannot be good.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Engaging in wrongdoing to prevent harm is inherently wrong.
This quote suggests that resorting to immoral actions in an attempt to avert negative consequences does not justify those actions. It highlights the ethical stance that doing harm, even for a purportedly good reason, is fundamentally misguided and cannot lead to true goodness.
Themes
EvilMoralityEthicsWrongdoingGoodness
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about ethics, when discussing the consequences of actions.
More from Samuel Taylor Coleridge
All quotes βCommon sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeRead
And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair! Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.
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Often do the spirits stride on before the event; and in today already walks tomorrow.
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Mr. Lyell's system of geology is just half the truth, and no more. He affirms a great deal that is true, and he denies a great deal which is equally true; which is the general characteristic of all systems not embracing the whole truth.
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeRead
To believe and to understand are not diverse things, but the same things in different periods of growth.
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeRead
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