Let’s use this thread to collect interesting, sage, or otherwise memorable quotes you encounter within literature, economics, philosophy, and other fields!
To name causes for a state of affairs is not to excuse it. Things are justified or condemned by their consequences, not by their antecedents.
—John Dewey, “The Liberal College and Its Enemies,” The Independent, 1924
Ngl I have no idea about the original context for this. But this quote excellently addresses a long-held frustration of mine that explaining the causes of something is conflated with excusing it! This extends to both the political (e.g. contributors to criminal behavior) and the personal ("Don't give me excuses!").
To name causes for a state of affairs is not to excuse it. Things are justified or condemned by their consequences, not by their antecedents.
—John Dewey, “The Liberal College and Its Enemies,” The Independent, 1924
Ngl I have no idea about the original context for this. But this quote excellently addresses a long-held frustration of mine that explaining the causes of something is conflated with excusing it! This extends to both the political (e.g. contributors to criminal behavior) and the personal ("Don't give me excuses!").
As no man made the land, so no man can claim a right of ownership in the land.
– Henry George
Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue.
— François La Rochefoucauld, Reflections, 1665
Took me a little bit