Primary Humanities Reader & Moral Thinkers Deep Archive

Author d. 1956; Public Domain in India since 2017 (60y post-death)

"Caste System is not merely division of labour. It is also a division of labourers. Civilized society undoubtedly needs division of labour. But in no civilized society is division of labour accompanied by this unnatural division of labourers into watertight compartments. Caste System is not merely a division of labourers which is quite different from division..."

Author d. 1948; Public Domain in India since 2009 (60y post-death)

"Civilisation is that mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty. Performance of duty and observance of morality are convertible terms. To observe morality is to attain mastery over our mind and our passions. So doing, we know ourselves. We notice that mind is a restless bird; the more it gets the more it wants, and still remains unsatisfied. Th..."

Author d. 1804 (Trans. T. K. Abbott 1898); Public Domain worldwide

"Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good, without qualification, except a good will. Intelligence, wit, judgement, and the other talents of the mind, however they may be named, or courage, resolution, perseverance, as qualities of temperament, are undoubtedly good and desirable in many respects; but these gi..."

Author d. 1873; Public Domain worldwide

"The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral coercion of public opinion. That principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warrant..."

Ancient text c. 3rd cent. BCE (Trans. R. Shamasastry 1915); Public Domain worldwide

"In the happiness of his subjects lies his happiness; in their welfare his welfare; whatever pleases himself he shall not consider as good, but whatever pleases his subjects he shall consider as good. Hence the king shall ever be active and discharge his duties; the root of wealth is activity, and of evil its reverse. In the absence of activity, there is cert..."

Ancient text c. 350 BCE (Trans. W. D. Ross 1908); Public Domain worldwide

"Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim. If, then, there is some end of the things we do, which we desire for its own sake, and if we do not choose everything for the sake of something else (for at that rate t..."

Excerpts of fundamental ethical doctrines for non-commercial academic study

"Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that ev..."

Author d. 1902; Public Domain worldwide

"Every work must necessarily be a mixture of good and evil; yet we are commanded to work incessantly. Good and evil will both have their results, will produce their Karma. The good action will produce the good effect, the bad action the bad effect. But both good and bad actions bring bondage to the soul. The solution reached in the Gita in regard to this bond..."

Author d. 1941; Public Domain in India since 2002 (60y post-death)

"Nationalism is a cruel epidemic of evil that is sweeping over the human world of the present age, eating into its moral vitality. When the machine of the Nation becomes organized for commercial and political power, it reduces the living bonds of society into mechanical uniformity. Man in his totality has been replaced by the professional man, the politician,..."

Author d. 1778 (Trans. G. D. H. Cole 1913); Public Domain worldwide

"Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they. How did this change come about? I do not know. What can make it legitimate? That question I think I can answer. The social order is a sacred right which is the basis of all other rights. Nevertheless, this right does not com..."