If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begun upon this downward path, you never know where you are to stop. Many a man has dated his ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought little of at the time.
Presumably the quote is from De Quincey’s essay “On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts”, and with that context & perspective in mind it has a tad more substance.
Related to Schelling fences on slippery slopes:
— Thomas De Quincey
I don’t get this quote, it strikes me as wit with no substance.
Presumably the quote is from De Quincey’s essay “On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts”, and with that context & perspective in mind it has a tad more substance.
I have always read it as intentionally ironic commentary on the ‘slippery slope’ more than anything else.
I read it more specifically as a parody of moral slipperyslopism, in which slight moral infractions lead to the worst sort of behavior.
Arguably, we live in an era strongly shaped by revulsion at moral slipperyslopism.
Me too, honestly.