We find a book eloquent not only when it forms our emotions, but also when it fortifies our opinions.
[Nous trouvons éloquent dans les livres, non-seulement tout ce qui augmente nos passions, mais aussi tout ce qui augmente nos opinions.]Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 23 “Des Qualités de l’Écrivain [Of the Qualities of Writers],” ¶ 157 (1850 ed.) [tr. Collins (1928), ch. 22]
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(Source (French)). Alternate translation:
In books we take for eloquence not only all that strengthens our passions, but also whatever strengthens our opinions. [tr. Lyttelton (1899), ch. 22, ¶ 74]
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If there be, in any region of the universe, an order of moral agents living in society, whose reason is strong, whose passions and inclinations are moderate, and whose dispositions are turned to virtue, to such an order of happy beings, legislation, administration, and police, with the endlessly various and complicated apparatus of politics, must be in a great measure superfluous.
James Burgh (1714-1775) British politician and writer
Political Disquisitions, Book 1 “Of Government, briefly,” ch. 1 “Government by Laws and Sanctions, why necessary” (1774)
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