exaggerated altruistic virtues

Altruistic impulses of charity, benevolence, and the like are admirable, though misdirected intentions — degrade and demoralise … It is much more easy to have sympathy with suffering than it is to have sympathy with thought. The majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism, they very seriously, sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see.

But their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it, they are part of the disease. They find themselves surrounded by hideous poverty … The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible. And the altruistic virtues have really prevented the carrying out of this aim.

• selfishness and altruism
• perfections charity and conformity
• selfishness is to make claims upon others
• to sympathise with a friend’s success

linked mentions for "exaggerated altruistic virtues":

1. selfishness and altruism
   from The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891), Oscar Wilde: exaggerated altruistic virtues original virtue through disobedience selfishness is to