A quotation from La Rochefoucauld
Interest, upon which we commonly lay the Blame of all our ill Actions, oftentimes deserves the commendation due to our Good ones.
[L’intérêt, que l’on accuse de tous nos crimes, mérite souvent d’être loué de nos bonnes actions.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶305 (1665-1678) [tr. Stanhope (1694)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/la-rochefoucauld-fra…
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La Rochefoucauld, Francois - Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶305 (1665-1678) [tr. Stanhope (1694)] | WIST Quotations
Interest, upon which we commonly lay the Blame of all our ill Actions, oftentimes deserves the commendation due to our Good ones. [L’intérêt, que l’on accuse de tous nos crimes, mérite souvent d’être loué de nos bonnes actions.WIST Quotations
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
in reply to WIST Quotations • • •Great quote. The bit that power is sought over economic returns strikes me as accurate (though of course, Orwell isn't an economist, but rather a close observer).
I've noted too that power is ordinal, where wealth is cardinal. That is, power is (largely) based on ranking, and in a power game, an actor might be willing to sacrifice a great deal of wealth to retain or gain ranking. That's almost definitionally what war is.
Economics ... tends to dismiss this possibility entirely.
DoomsdaysCW reshared this.