As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have; but, in their stead, / Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, / Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not" (5.3.25-28).
William ShakespeareRead
How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done!
Interpretation
The awareness of opportunities to commit wrongdoing often leads to those wrongdoings being carried out.
This quote by William Shakespeare suggests that simply recognizing the means or opportunities to engage in immoral or unethical actions can propel individuals to commit those actions. It highlights a psychological phenomenon where the temptation of wrongdoing becomes stronger when the means to achieve it are visible, illustrating the inner struggle between moral choices and desires.
In practice
During a lecture on ethics, this quote can illustrate the moral dilemmas faced when presented with unethical opportunities.
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have; but, in their stead, / Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, / Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not" (5.3.25-28).
Love bears it out even to the edge of doom.
Good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people.
Absence doth sharpen love, presence strengthens it; the one brings fuel, the other blows it till it burns clear.
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!
Give it an understanding, but no tongue.
New York... is a city of geometric heights, a petrified desert of grids and lattices, an inferno of greenish abstraction under a flat sky, a real Metropolis from which man is absent by his very accumulation.
If asked how to cope with a great host of the enemy in orderly array and on the point of marching to the attack, I should say: "Begin by seizing something which your opponent holds dear; then he will be amenable to your will." Rapidity is the essence of war: take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots.
Liberty is a different kind of pain from prison.
I don't see myself as a hero because what I'm doing is self-interested: I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.
The profound thinker always suspects that he is superficial.
Let's be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven't got the power to destroy the planet - or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves.
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