1785

Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.

Notes on the State of Virginia · 1785

★ 7.8

Nonfiction · Philosophy

Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals

Immanuel Kant

1785 · 130 pages

Nothing is good except a good will. From that Kant derives two commands: act only on a principle you could will everyone to follow, and treat persons as ends, never merely as means.

★ 7.1

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men, Gang aft a-gley, An' lea'e us nought but grief and pain, For promis'd joy.

Robert Burns

1785

★ 6.9

Philosophical literature

There is... Only a single categorical imperative and it is this: Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.

Immanuel Kant

The Metaphysics of Morals · 1785

★ 5.3

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

Notes on the State of Virginia · 1785

★ 3.8

Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effet of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.

Notes on the State of Virginia · 1785

★ 3.8

Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain.

1785

★ 3.6

But war's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings would not play at.

The Winter Morning Walk · 1785

★ 3.5

Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.

Notes on the State of Virginia · 1785

★ 2.2

Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever He had a chosen people, whose breasts He has made His peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.

He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual, he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.

Notes on the State of Virginia · 1785

★ 2.1

Letter

1785

★ 2.0

The social, friendly, honest man, Whate'er he be, 'Tis he fulfills great Nature's plan, An' none but he!

Robert Burns

1785

★ 1.9

God made the country, and man made the town.

1785

★ 1.9

England, with all thy faults, I love thee still-My country!