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Quotation from Essays and Aphorisms by Arthur Schopenhauer

“Compared with the Moral Law the State is a crutch instead of a limb, an automaton instead of a man”

Arthur Schopenhauer (spoken by Schopenhauer)

Essays and Aphorisms, On Human Nature, 'Ethical Reflections', trans. T. Bailey Saunders (1897)

Portrait of Arthur Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer's distinction between ethics and politics, framed in images of prosthesis and mechanism.

Citation: "Compared with the Moral Law the State is a crutch instead of a limb, an automaton instead of a man" — Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms, On Human Nature, 'Ethical Reflections', trans. T. Bailey Saunders (1897). (id essays-and-aphorisms-q11)

Portrait: Arthur Schopenhauer by J Schäfer, 1859b, Johann Schäfer, Public domain.

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Quote card: Compared with the Moral Law the State is a crutch instead of a limb, an automato