fingerpost

Monday, March 29, 2010

*

If your morals make you

dreary, depend on it,

they are wrong.

*

-Robert Louis Stevenson

5 comments:

Sarah said...: I don't know... doing the right thing can often be rather dreary.; 3/29/2010 12:59 AM
Damien said...: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.; 3/29/2010 8:53 AM
Sarah said...: I agree with you and the long-term view of lasting joy.

I just thought this quote seemed overly simplistic. That is, if it were not taken in context, it could be a dangerous philosophy. There are times when your morals will make you miserable. And feelings are rarely a legitimate measure of right vs. wrong.

The problem more often lies in my application of my morals than in the morals themselves.; 3/30/2010 12:32 AM
Damien said...: i think you're right to take issue with the isolated statement. and, for what it's worth, i don't always agree with my own posts. sometimes i put them out there just because i think they're provocative or funny, or, as in this case, the speaker himself is compelling. but, as you are noting in your comments, the path of wisdom requires the making of many distinctions.

thanks so much for taking the time.; 3/30/2010 7:49 AM
funke said...: I think that if your morals are making you dreary, it's time to take a good hard look at just *why* you are doing what you are doing. Maybe you are feeling dreary because you keep doing the right thing and no one notices and this is getting really old, but by golly, I'm gonna take the higher path, etc., etc.

Moralism for the sake of being moral without any sort of contextual relationship with a Person is very, very dreary indeed.; 4/01/2010 7:45 AM

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