John Dewey

Faith and unbelief still had serious consequences, but these were now thought to be confined to the temporal and eternal happiness of the persons directly concerned.

But social changes gradually effected as one of the new functions of the life of the community the rights of private conscience and creed.

We agree to leave one another alone (within limits) more from recognition of evil consequences which have resulted from the opposite course rather than from any profound belief in its positive social beneficence.

Such phenomena as the Ku Klux and legislative activity to regulate science show that the belief in liberty of thought is still superficial.

Land, however, is of prime importance to society, and the private transaction is hedged about with legal regulations; evidence of transfer and ownership has to be recorded with a public official in forms publicly prescribed.

Consequences, in a word, affect large numbers beyond those immediately concerned in the transaction.

But it is also possible that such a state would be even more alive than is the community at present to the consequences of the union of man and woman not only upon children but upon its own well-being and stability.

No one can take into account all the consequences of the acts he performs.

Any one who looked too far abroad with regard to the outcome of what he is proposing to do would, if there were no general rules in existence, soon be lost in a hopelessly complicated muddle of considerations.

The man of most generous outlook has to draw the line somewhere, and he is forced to draw it in whatever concerns those closely associated with himself.

Much of what is called selfishness is but the outcome of limitation of observation and imagination.

If one wishes to realize the distance which may lie between “facts” and the meaning of facts, let one go to the field of social discussion.