Standing armies shall in time be totally abolished.
Immanuel KantRead
In morals, what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness; in religion, what begins in fear usually ends in fanaticism. Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the beginning of all evil.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fear as a foundation leads to negative outcomes in both morality and religion.
The quote by Anna Brownell Jameson highlights the detrimental effects of fear when it serves as a foundation for moral and religious principles. It suggests that actions motivated by fear can spiral into wicked behaviors or extreme fanaticism, thereby illustrating how fear can corrupt one's ethical compass and lead to severe consequences in human behavior and beliefs.
Themes
FearMoralityReligionWickednessFanaticismEvil
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the impacts of fear-based leadership on society.
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Believe nothing,_x000D_ _x000D_ No matter where you read it,_x000D_ _x000D_ Or who has said it,_x000D_ _x000D_ Not even if I have said it,_x000D_ _x000D_ Unless it agrees with your own reason_x000D_ _x000D_ And your own common sense.
Gautama BuddhaRead
At what point, then, should one resist? When one's belt is taken away? When one is ordered to face into a corner? When one crosses the threshold of one's home? An arrest consists of a series of incidental irrelevancies, of a multitude of things that do not matter, and there seems no point in arguing about one of them individually...and yet all these incidental irrelevancies taken together implacably constitute the arrest.
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynRead
The vegetarian movement ought to fill with gladness the souls of those who have at heart the realization of God's kingdom upon earth, not because vegetarianism itself is such an important step towards the realization of this kingdom (all real steps are equally important or unimportant), but because it serves as a criterion by which we know that the pursuit of moral perfection on the part of man is genuine and sincere.
Leo TolstoyRead
When a legislature decides to steal some of our rights and plans to use police force to accomplish it, what's the real difference between them and the thief? Darn little! They hide behind the excuse that they're legislating democratically. The fact they do it by a majority vote has no moral significance whatsoever. Numerical might does not constitute right, no more than a lynch mob can justify its act because a majority participated.
H. L. RichardsonRead
Duty and dereliction guide thee back to solitude.
Percy Bysshe ShelleyRead