Sunday, January 08, 2006

Prudence, the Lesser Virtue

Why should I renounce the "inscrutable delight" [of pleasures] for the sake of dull well-being? Passions lead to destruction, but prudence does not save from destruction. No one by means of prudent behaviour alone has ever conquered death.

It is only in the presence of something higher that the voice of passions may prove to be wrong. It is silenced by the thunder of heaven, but the tame speeches of good sense are powerless to drown it.

--Vladimir Soloviev


via Summa Contra Mundum

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