If venereal delight and the power of propagating the species were permitted only to the virtuous, it would make the world very good.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
If we do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end not produce food, either.
We can understand, too, that natural species are chosen not because they are 'good to eat' but because they are 'good to think.'
As a species, we tend to be doers, forever shaping and reshaping the world to better suit our purposes.
The notion that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony, is a really dangerous idea. Those who are afflicted with this notion are the first ones to give up their souls, their freedom. Your desire that it be that way will enslave you and make your life vacuous.
The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great, and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.
When you pursue great flavor, you also pursue great ecology.
Nature was here a series of wonders, and a fund of delight.
In a state therefore of great equality and virtue, where pure and simple manners prevailed, the increase of the human species would evidently be much greater than any increase that has been hitherto known.
Mere goodness can achieve little against the power of nature.
Pleasure only starts once the worm has got into the fruit, to become delightful happiness must be tainted with poison.