The love of liberty that is not a real principle of dutiful behavior to authority is as hypocritical as the religion that is not productive of a good life.
Joseph ButlerRead
However, without considering this connection, there is no doubt but that more good than evil, more delight than sorrow, arises from compassion itself; there being so many things which balance the sorrow of it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Compassion brings more joy than sorrow, and its positive aspects outweigh the negatives.
In this quote, Joseph Butler reflects on the nature of compassion, suggesting that while it might be connected to sorrow and suffering, the overall impact of compassion is one of joy and goodness. He emphasizes that the positive outcomes derived from compassion far exceed any adverse feelings, highlighting the importance of empathy in human relationships and the balance it creates in life.
Themes
CompassionJoySorrowGoodnessEmpathy
In practice
Example use cases
A motivational speech about community service could include this quote to highlight the value of helping others.
More from Joseph Butler
All quotes →The private interest of the individual would not be sufficiently provided for by reasonable and cool self-love alone; therefore the appetites and passions are placed within as a guard and further security, without which it would not be taken due care of.
Joseph ButlerRead
Both our senses and our passions are a supply to the imperfection of our nature; thus they show that we are such sort of creatures as to stand in need of those helps which higher orders of creatures do not.
Joseph ButlerRead
There is a much more exact correspondence between the natural and moral world than we are apt to take notice of.
Joseph ButlerRead
God Almighty is, to be sure, unmoved by passion or appetite, unchanged by affection; but then it is to be added that He neither sees nor hears nor perceives things by any senses like ours; but in a manner infinitely more perfect.
Joseph ButlerRead
That which is the foundation of all our hopes and of all our fears; all our hopes and fears which are of any consideration; I mean a Future Life.
Joseph ButlerRead
Similar quotes
You ought to love all mankind; nay, every individual of mankind. You ought not to love the individuals of your domestic circles less, but to love those who exist beyond it more. Once make the feelings of confidence and of affection universal, and the distinctions of property and power will vanish; nor are they to be abolished without substituting something equivalent in mischief to them, until all mankind shall acknowledge an entire community of rights.
Percy Bysshe ShelleyRead
The English people believes itself to be free; it is gravely mistaken; it is free only during election of members of parliament; as soon as the members are elected, the people is enslaved; it is nothing. In the brief moment of its freedom, the English people makes such a use of that freedom that it deserves to lose it.
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The fact is that more people have been slaughtered in the name of religion than for any other single reason. That, THAT my friends, is true perversion.
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Industrial civilization is only possible when there's no self-denial. Self-indulgence up to the very limits imposed by hygiene and economics. Otherwise the wheels stop turning.
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No effect of work can be eternal.
Swami VivekanandaRead
a man who has decided upon self-destruction is far removed from mundane affairs, and to sit down and write his will would be, at that moment, an act just as absurd as winding up one’s watch, since together with the man, the whole world is destroyed; the last letter is instantly reduced to dust and, with it, all the postmen; and like smoke, vanishes the estate bequeathed to a nonexistent progeny.
Vladimir NabokovRead