First of all, Nature has endowed every species of living creature with the instinct of self-preservation, of avoiding what seems likely to cause injury to life or limb, and of procuring and providing everything needful for life--food, shelter, and the like.
From his philosophical treatise on moral duties, this passage describes the fundamental natural instinct for self-preservation in all living creatures.
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He was wrong; for deceit does not remove the guilt of perjury--it merely aggravates it. #The ancient Roman discipline.# His cunning that impudently tried to masquerade as prudence was, therefore, only folly.
What a sorry state of servitude for a virtue--to be pandering to sensual pleasure!
For self-control is the foe of the passions, and the passions are the handmaids of pleasure.
For if we bring a certain amount of propriety and order into the transactions of daily life, we shall be conserving moral rectitude and moral dignity.
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