If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they are wrong. I do not say 'give them up,' for they may be all you have; but conceal them like a vice, lest they should spoil the lives of better and simpler people.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Stevenson warns that dulling moral obligations can harm oneself and others, suggesting concealment rather than abandonment.
- In plain terms
- If your morals make you unhappy they might be wrong so hide them if you cannot change them.
- What can you take from it?
- Examine morals that cause misery.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Do your current morals make you miserable?
- When might hiding a belief protect others?
Another view
Advising concealment of wrong morals risks hypocrisy.
More from Robert Louis Stevenson
Gentleness and cheerfulness, these come before all morality; they are the perfect duties.
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Permalink to quote #73 To be honest, to be kind - to earn a little and to spend a little less, to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall b…
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