The moral case for intervention is only as strong as the practicality of the mission itself. There is no moral case for doing something you’re not capable of doing.
Dexter Filkins (b. 1961) American journalist
“The Moral Logic of Humanitarian Intervention,” New Yorker (16 Sep 2019)
(Source)
Quotations about:
imperative
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Whatever creates or increases happiness or some part of happiness, we ought to do; whatever destroys or hampers happiness, or gives rise to its opposite, we ought not to do.
[τὰ μὲν γὰρ παρασκευάζοντα ταύτην ἢ τῶν μορίων τι, ἢ μεῖζον ἀντ᾽ ἐλάττονος ποιοῦντα, δεῖ πράττειν, τὰ δὲ φθείροντα ἢ ἐμποδίζοντα ἢ τὰ ἐναντία ποιοῦντα μὴ πράττειν.]
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Rhetoric [Ῥητορική; Ars Rhetorica], Book 1, ch. 5, sec. 2 (1.5.2) / 1360b.11 (350 BC) [tr. Roberts (1924)]
(Source)
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:
For it behoves us to perform those acts which procure [happiness], or any one of its constituent parts, or which, when it is little, render it greater; but not to perform those which destroy, or obstruct it, or produce its contraries.
[Source (1847)]
We needs do the things which procure [happiness] or any of its constituents, or which render it greater from having been less, and refrain from doing the things which destroy or impede it, or produce its opposites.
[tr. Buckley (1850)]
Since we ought to do those things which tend to create [Happiness] or any one of its parts, or to increase that part; but we ought not do those things which corrupt, or hinder it, or produce its opposite.
[tr. Jebb (1873)]
For one should do the things which procure happiness or one of its parts, or increase instead of diminishing it, and avoid doing those things which destroy or hinder it or bring about what is contrary to it.
[tr. Freese (1926)]
After all, we are bound to act in a way that creates the conditions for happiness or one of its constituents, or at any rate increases rather than diminishes it, and to avoid doing things that destroy or hinder it or have outcomes that oppose it.
[tr. Waterfield (2018)]
There are two kinds of Friends in our Society, and two kinds of people in the world: there are therefore people, and there are however people. Therefore people say, “There are children going to bed hungry in our community, Therefore …” and they proceed to devise and define the ways in which they can meet the need in their community. However people make the same beginning statement, “There are children going to bed hungry in our community,” but they follow that statement with, “However …” and they explain why nothing can be done about it.
Henry Joel Cadbury (1883-1974) American biblical scholar, Quaker historian, writer, activist
(Attributed)
Quoted in Synthesis (8 May 1994).
There are things you can’t walk away from. Not if you want to live with yourself afterward.
Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
Death Masks (2003)
So spake the Fiend, and with necessity,
The Tyrant’s plea, excus’d his devilish deeds.John Milton (1608-1674) English poet
Paradise Lost, 4.383 (1667)
It is true, the bill is said to be founded on necessity; but what is this? Is it not necessity, which has always been the plea of every illegal exertion of power, or exercise of oppression? Is not necessity the pretence of every usurpation? Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
What is so advantageous to the people as liberty? which is sought out and preferred to everything, not only by men, but even by the beasts.
[Quid tam populare quam libertas? Quam non solum ab hominibus verum etiam a bestiis expeti atque omnibus rebus anteponi videtis.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Lege Agraria [On the Agrarian Law], Oration 2 “Contra Rullum,” sec. 9 (63 BC) [tr. Yonge (1856)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translation:
What is so beneficial to the people as liberty, which we see not only to be greedily sought after by men, but also by beasts, and to be preferred to all things.
[Source (1884)]
