What is right and what is practicable are two different things.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The author distinguishes between moral correctness and practical feasibility.
- In plain terms
- Doing what is right is not always the same as doing what can actually be done.
- What can you take from it?
- Practical constraints often limit the application of moral principles.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you balance right and possible?
- When should practicality outweigh principle?
Another view
It can justify compromising on essential ethical standards.
More from James Buchanan
Liberty must be allowed to work out its natural results; and these will, ere long, astonish the world.
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