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  ...know of what I did in so garbled and distorted a fashion as to have done me much mischief. But if things were known as they actually happened, I believe I should have less to be ashamed of than a good many of my neighbours--and less also to be proud of.
Sin
Sin is like a mountain with two aspects according to whether it is viewed before or after it has been reached: yet both aspects are real.
Morality
turns on whether the pleasure precedes or follows the pain. Thus, It is immoral to get drunk because the headache comes after the drinking, but if the headache came first and the drunkenness afterwards, it would be moral to get drunk.  
Change and Immorality
Every discovery and, indeed, every change of any sort is immoral, as tending to unsettle men's minds, and hence their custom and hence their morals, which are the net residuum of their "mores" or customs. Wherefrom it should follow that there is nothing so absolutely moral as stagnation, except for this that, if perfect, it would destroy all mores whatever. So there must always be an immorality in morality and, in like manner, a morality in immorality. ...   Butler, Samuel

Excerpt from The Note-Books of Samuel Butler · This quote is tagged Alcohol and Alcoholism · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation.

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