Quote#Wisdom
Y: Do you bear in mind, that in breeding the silkworms, we cause more…
Quote byLewis Gompertz · 1783–1861
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824), Chapter 7, p. 110.
English (original)
Y: Do you bear in mind, that in breeding the silkworms, we cause more to come into existence than would otherwise be the case? Z: Though I think we are unauthorized to destroy or prevent life, life does not appear so desirable that we should perform any action for the sole purpose of producing it. Man does not possess sufficient knowledge, to do either act with design.
— Lewis Gompertz
More from Lewis Gompertz
[W]e should never admit of the propriety of the will or volition of one animal being the agent of another, unless we should perceive its own good to result from it, or that justice should require it.
Axiom 8. That the importance of any action is measured by the degree of pleasure or pain that it causes or prevents.
[H]owever the state of man may be above that of other animals, if the superiority be owing to his being differently situated, we must not dazzle ourselves by gazing on the brilliancy of the situation, but learn how to estimate their true …
[T]his seems to be still the age of infancy, and baby-like do we cry. This is all made for me! The land and the ocean abound with myriads of animated beings of admirable construction only for me to play with, to torment, and to destroy. …
Axiom 5. That we should never admit of the propriety of the will or volition of one animal being the agent of another, unless we should perceive its own good to result from it, or that justice should require it.
First, how do you prove that mankind is invested with the right of killing them, and that brutes have been created for the purpose you assert them to be? Secondly, it is to be observed that the flesh of man himself possesses the same …