The supreme blossoming of character lies (or reside) in renounciation (or renuncement) and abnegation of self (“abnégation de soi”, Fr.)
AFRIKAN SPIRIf pity was always equally alive and acting in all individuals and in all circumstances, we could do away with moral. Unfortunately, it is not compassion, but rather it’s contrary, selfishness, that act most strongly in us.
More Afrikan Spir Quotes
-
-
Infringing upon (or encroaching) the right of a single person, we overthrow (or turn upside down) the whole order on which rest legal agreements; for if we break (or transgress or violate).
AFRIKAN SPIR -
It is not the first time that men sell their birth right for a dish of lentils, and thus disown (or repudiate or deny) the best of thmeselves.
AFRIKAN SPIR -
Men spend their life down here in the worship of petty (or mean) interests and the search of perishable things, and with that (“et avec cela”, Fr.) they pretend to perpetuate for all eternity their self (“moi”, Fr.) so hardly worthy (“digne”, Fr.) of it.
AFRIKAN SPIR -
What we take for vainglory, ambition, love of power and riches (or wealth), is often, indeed, a need to mask this emptiness, a need to let one’s hair down (or to live it up), to put oneself on a false scent or trail. (de se donner le change”, Fr.)
AFRIKAN SPIR -
There is a radical dualism between the empirical nature of man and its moral nature.
AFRIKAN SPIR -
(“Le concept de l’absolu, d’où découlent, dans le domaine moral, les lois ou normes morales, constitue, le principe d’identité, qui est la loi fondamentale de la pensée; il en découle les normes logiques qui régissent la pensée dans le domaine de la science.”)
AFRIKAN SPIR -
The natural sense of commiseration (or “sympathy”, – “commisération”, Fr.) for one’s fellow men – compassion, and the influence of education, by association of ideas (“par l’association d’idées”, Fr.) – habit.
AFRIKAN SPIR -
Nothing is more stimulating and more salutary to (or for) the inner (or inward) development than the exemple of men devoted to the good.
AFRIKAN SPIR -
In the actual state of social relationships, the forms (“formes”, Fr.) of politeness are necessary as a subsitute to benevolence.
AFRIKAN SPIR -
Deep down, everything boils down (“au fond tout se ramène”, Fr.) to the following simple question; Do we really want justice and the realization in this world of higher principles, or else do we want to serve selfish.
AFRIKAN SPIR -
The well understood equity as well as interest of society demand that we work on much more to prevent crime and offenses than to punish them.
AFRIKAN SPIR -
As long as men will not be freed from their errors and delusions, humanity will not be able to go towards (“marcher vers”, Fr.) the accomplishment of its true destinies.
AFRIKAN SPIR -
The antagonism between nationalities will lose all its acuteness on the day when neither the iniquitous tendency to oppression and domination, nor the perpetual danger of the threatening preparations for war will exist.
AFRIKAN SPIR -
They even came to raise the methods of slaughter to the rank of “science”… We would not (On ne saurait”, Fr.) imagine a more extraordinary moral blindness!
AFRIKAN SPIR -
There are some who esteem that it is a naivety to believe that a moral regeneration may be possible (“soit possible”, Fr.); now, if this was not the case, it would not be worth the trouble that humanity continue to vegetate without aim.
AFRIKAN SPIR