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About this quote

What does it mean?
The only absolute rule is to act constantly toward creating the greatest total good.
In plain terms
Always try to do the most good you can.
What can you take from it?
Act constantly to create the most good.

Where it applies

  • decision making
  • civic duty

Putting it to work

  • evaluate actions by total good

Questions to consider

  • What is the greatest good you can see?
  • How do you measure good?

Another view

Defining the largest good is often subjective and difficult.

More from William James

  1. All the higher, more penetrating ideals are revolutionary. They present themselves far less in the guise of effects of past experience than in that of probable…

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  2. An unlearned carpenter of my acquaintance once said in my hearing: 'There is very little difference between one man and another; but what little there is, is v…

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  3. Man's chief difference from the brutes lies in the exuberant excess of his subjective propensities - his preeminence over them simply and solely in the number …

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