Note 160 — Chapter XVIII · CONFUCIANISM, BUSHIDŌ, BUDDHISM

“Emotionally its tenets do not at bottom satisfy us Occidentals, flirt with them as we may. Passivity is not our passion, preach it as we are prone to do each to his neighbor. Scientifically, pessimism is foolishness, and impersonality a stage in development from which we are emerging, not one into which we shall ever relapse. As a dogma it is unfortunate, doing its devotee in the deeper sense no good, but it becomes positively faulty when it leads to practical ignoring of the mine and thine, and does other people harm.”—Lowell.