De l'esprit; or, Essays on the mind. Transl. To Which are now prefixed, a life of the author and prefatory strictures by W. Mudford |
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De L'Esprit: Or, Essays on the Mind. Transl. to Which Are Now Prefixed, a ... Claude-Adrien Helvétius Sin vista previa disponible - 2013 |
Términos y frases comunes
abilities actions admiration advantage agreeable ambition animated appear Aristotle attention beauty Cæsar Carthage cause CHAP chevalier Folard Cicero citizens consequently considered contempt Corneille courage death Descartes desire despotic power doubtless earth effect empire esteem eyes favour fear folly Fontenelle friends friendship genius give glory happiness Helvetius honour human ideas ignorance imagination indolence infinite number interest kind king Lacedemon laws legislator luxury Lycurgus mankind manner memory merit mind morality nations nature necessary never objects observe obtain opinion pain perceive Persians person philosopher pleasure Plutarch poniard prejudices pride prince principles probity produced prove punishment religion render respect riches ridiculous Romans Rome Saracens savage nations sciences Scythians sensation sense sensible sentiments shew society soul spect strong passions superior suppose Tacitus Themistocles thing thou tion Tonquin truth vanity Vespasian vices virtue virtuous viziers Voltaire women
Pasajes populares
Página 336 - Mayne, like a shewer from the South to the North, and from the North to the West, and then downe to the South againe.
Página 35 - I say of actions, because we cannot judge of intentions. How is it possible? It is seldom or never that action is the effect of a sentiment; we ourselves are often ignorant of the motives by which we are determined. A rich man bestows a comfortable subsistence on a worthy man reduced to poverty. Doubtless he does a good action ; but is this action simply the effect of a desire of rendering a man happy ? Pity, the hopes of gratitude, vanity itself, all these different motives, separately or aggregately,...
Página 119 - This being granted, morality is evidently no more than a frivolous science, unless blended with policy and legislation: whence I conclude that, if philosophers would be of use to the world, they should survey objects from the same point of view as the legislator.
Página 175 - Spaniards leave their ports, and traverse the seas, to plant the cross and desolation in America'*'. If we cast our eyes to the north, the south, the east, and the west, we every where see the sacred knife of religion held up to the breasts of women, children, and old men ; the earth smoking with the blood of victims sacrificed to the false Gods or to the Supreme Being ; every place offers nothing to the sight but the vast, the horrible, carnage caused by a want of toleration.
Página xxxi - ... at least, which is common. to men of all nations, and which in all governments can have no other object in view than the public advantage. The principles I establish on this subject are, I think, conformable to the general interest, and to experience. It is by facts that I have ascended to causes. I imagined that morality ought to be treated like all the other sciences, and founded on experiment, as well as natural philosophy.
Página 156 - If a sage descended from Heaven, and in his conduct consulted only the light of reason, he would universally pass for a fool. He would be, as Socrates says, like a physician whom the pastry-cooks accused before a tribunal of children of forbidding pie« and t in -. He would certainly be condemned.
Página 171 - ... to subside, and if there can be perceived here and there some isles where virtue and truth may find rest for their feet, and communicate themselves to mankind.
Página 171 - ... in the practice of actions useful to the greater number, it is evident that justice is in its own nature always armed with a power sufficient to suppress vice, and place men under the necessity of being virtuous.
Página 225 - ... conducts the botanist to the brinks of precipices in quest of plants ; which anciently carried the juvenile lovers of the sciences into Egypt, Ethiopia, and even into the Indies, for visiting the most celebrated philosophers, and acquiring from their conversation the principles of their doctrine. How strongly did this passion exert itself in Demosthenes, who, for perfecting his pronunciation, used every day to stand on the sea-shore, and with his mouth full of pebbles harangue the agitated waves...
Página 178 - Maxima, 1, 207, 240, 301. to condemn that miserable so-called philosophy which tells us that "a physical sensibility has produced in us a love of pleasure and hatred of pain ; that pleasure and pain have at length produced and opened in all hearts the buds of self-love, which, by unfolding themselves, give birth to the passions whence spring all our virtues and vices...