Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.
James Anthony FroudeRead
Our human laws are but the copies, more or less imperfect, of the eternal laws, so far as we can read them.
Interpretation
Human laws attempt to reflect universal truths but are inherently flawed.
This quote suggests that the laws created by humans are mere approximations of the deeper, eternal laws that govern the universe. It implies that while we strive to establish justice and order through our laws, they are imperfect reflections of a higher moral truth that we can only partially understand.
In practice
In a philosophical debate about the nature of justice.
Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.
If you think you can temper yourself into manliness by sitting here over your books, it is the very silliest fancy that ever tempted a young man to his ruin. You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.
The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil.
I'm a spokesman for myself. It just so happens that there's a bunch of people that are concerned with what I have to say. I find that frightening at times because I'm just as confused as most people. I don't have the answers for anything.
Finding oneself was a misnomer; a self is not found but made.
Were we incapable of empathy β of putting ourselves in the position of others and seeing that their suffering is like our own β then ethical reasoning would lead nowhere. If emotion without reason is blind, then reason without emotion is impotent.
Beautiful things grow to a certain height and then they fail and fade off, breathing out memories as they decay. And just as any period decays in our minds, the things of that period should decay too, and in that way they're preserved for a while in the few hearts like mine that react to them. Trying to preserve a century by keeping its relics up to date is like keeping a dying man alive by stimulants.
When you are not the doer how can the attachment happen? You do a small thing and you become attached. You say, "I have done this." You would like everybody to know that you have done this and you have done that. This ego is the barrier for the supreme understanding. Drop the doer and let things happen. That's what Tilopa means by being loose and natural.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.