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Quote of the Month And, besides that general want of distrust and diffidence concerning our own character, there are, you see, two things, which may thus prejudice and darken the understanding itself: that overfondness for ourselves, which we are all so liable to... It is to be observed then, that as there are express determinate acts of wickedness, such as murder...so, on the other hand, there are numberless cases in which the vice and wickedness cannot be exactly defined; but consists in a certain general temper and course of action, or in the neglect of some duty...whose bounds and degrees are not fixed. This is the very province of self-deceit and self-partiality: here it governs without check or control. For what commandment is there broken? Is there a transgression where there is no law? --Joseph Butler, from "Upon Self-Deceit" |