NJHD 65 - The Love of Self
The love of self
consists
in willing well to ourselves alone,
and not to others except
for the sake of ourselves,
not even to the church, to our country,
to
any human society, or to a fellow-citizen;
and also in doing good to
them
only for the sake of our own fame, honor, and glory;
for unless it
sees these
in the goods which it does to others,
it says in its heart,
What does it matter? why should I do this?
and what advantage will it be to
me?
and so omits them.
As a result it is plain
that he who is in the love of
self
does not love the church, nor his country,
nor society, nor his
fellow-citizens,
nor anything good,
but himself alone.
NJHD 76 - The Love of the World
But the love of the world consists
in wishing to draw the wealth of
others
to ourselves by any artifice,
in placing the heart in riches,
and
in suffering the world to draw us back,
and lead us away from spiritual
love,
which is love towards the neighbor,
consequently, from heaven.
They are in the love of the world
who desire to draw the goods of others
to themselves by various artifices,
especially those who do so
by means
of cunning and deceit,
making no account of the good of the neighbor.
Those who are in that love
covet the goods of others,
and so far as they
do not fear the laws
and the loss of reputation for the sake of gain,
they deprive others of their goods,
even rob and plunder everything they have.
NJHD 80 - Why We Need to Know
In order that a person may know evils,
he ought to know their origins,
and unless he knows evils,
he cannot know goods,
thus he cannot know of
what quality he is himself:
this is the reason
that these two origins of
evils are treated of here.
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