No One Is Born Good

I’ve started Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller (2011).

Here’s a telling realization from sociologist Beatrice Webb that Keller quotes:

“Somewhere in my diary–1890?–I wrote ‘I have staked all on the essential goodness of human nature…” [Now thirty five years later I realize] how permanent are the evil impulses and instincts in man–how little you can count on changing some of these–for instance the appeal of wealth and power–by any change in the [social] machinery…No amount of knowledge or science will be of any avail unless we can curb the bad impulse.”

(Keller, 2011, p. xx)

Keller, T. (2011). Counterfeit gods: The empty promises of money, sex, and power, and the only hope that matters. Riverhead Books.