Depend upon this truth, that every man is the worse looked upon, and the less trusted for being thought to have no religion. Your moral character must be not only pure, but, like Caesars wife, unsuspected.The least speck or blemish upon it is fatal. Nothing degrades and vilifies more, for it excites and unites detestation and contempt. There is nothing so delicate as your moral character, and nothing which it is your interest so much to preserve pure. Should you be suspected of injustice, malignity, perfidy, lying, etc., all the parts and knowledge in the world will never procure you esteem, friendship, or respect. There is one vice into which people of good education, and,in the main, of good principles, sometimes fall, from mistaken notions of skill, dexterity, and self-defense: lying. However, the prudence and necessity of often concealing the truth insensibly seduces people to violate the truth by lying.. But they are not the same: concealing the Truth is not Lying: Lying is only an art of mean capacities, and it is the refuge of only mean spirits. Concealing the truth, upon proper occasions is as prudent and as innocent as telling a lie, upon any occasion, is infamous and foolish. Furthermore, if, in negotiations, you are looked upon as a liar and a trickster, no confidence will be placed in you, nothing will be communicated to you, and you will be in the situation of a man who has been branded by the iron as a thief; and who,from that mark, cannot afterward make an honest living but must forever continue as a thief. Therefore, putting moral virtues at the highest, and religion at the lowest, religion must still be allowed to be a collateral security, at least, to virtue, and every prudent man will sooner trust to two securities than to one.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 21:36:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015