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About this quote

What does it mean?
The author claims that providing enjoyment is never an unethical act.
In plain terms
Making people happy is never wrong.
What can you take from it?
Pleasure is a moral good.

Where it applies

  • discussing entertainment
  • moral reasoning

Putting it to work

  • ethical decision making
  • entertainment justification

Questions to consider

  • Is pleasure always good?
  • When might pleasure be wrong?

Another view

It ignores situations where pleasure causes harm.

More from Augustine Birrell

  1. There are no habits of man more alien to the doctrine of the Communist than those of the collector

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  2. An ordinary man can...surround himself with two thousand books..and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.

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  3. There were no books in Eden, and there will be none in heaven;

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