There are only three fundamental springs of human conduct, and all possible motives arise from one or other of these. They are:
(a) Egoism; which desires the weal of the self, and is limitless.
(b) Malice; which desires the woe of others, and may develop to the utmost cruelty.
(c) Compassion; which desires the weal of others, and may rise to nobleness and magnanimity.
......when the ultimate incentive for doing something, or leaving it undone, is precisely and exclusively centred in the weal and woe of some one else, who plays a passive part; that is to say, when the person on the active side, by what he does, or omits to do, simply and solely regards the weal and woe of another, and has absolutely no other object than to benefit him, by keeping harm from his door, or, it may be, even by affording help, assistance, and relief. It is this aim alone that gives to what is done, or left undone, the stamp of moral worth; which is thus seen to depend exclusively on the circumstance that the act is carried out, or omitted, purely for the benefit and advantage[Pg 169] of another. If and when this is not so, then the question of weal and woe which incites to, or deters from, every action contemplated, can only relate to the agent himself; whence its performance, or non-performance is entirely egoistic, and without moral value.
Schopenhauer
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