We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.
Seneca The YoungerRead
Where there is no free agency, there can be no morality. Where there is no temptation, there can be little claim to virtue. Where the routine is rigorously proscribed by law, the law, and not the man, must have the credit of the conduct.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Morality and virtue require the ability to make choices; without free will, one cannot truly claim moral character.
This quote emphasizes the importance of free agency in defining morality and virtue. It suggests that true moral actions arise from the ability to make choices, and when individuals are restricted by laws or routines, their moral credit is diminished because they are not exercising personal agency. Prescott argues that without the challenge of temptation and the freedom to choose between good and bad, claims to virtue become hollow.
Themes
MoralityFree AgencyVirtueTemptationLaw
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about ethics, one might quote Prescott to highlight the role of choice in moral decision-making.
Similar quotes
I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I'm gone which would not have happened if I had not come.
Salman RushdieRead
Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.
MontesquieuRead
Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.
Henry AdamsRead
If you ask me about my views on the environment, on women's rights, on gay rights, I am liberal. I don't have a problem with that at all. Some of my best friends are liberal.
Bernie SandersRead
A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the world: if the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the public.
Joseph AddisonRead