The Spirits' Book

Allan Kardec

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754. Does cruelty indicate the absence of a moral sense?
“You can say that a moral sense may not be developed, but do not say that it is absent. Its principle exists in every human being, and over the course of time it makes beings kind and humane. It exists in the savage, just like a bud contains its scent before it blooms into a flower.”


Human beings contain within themselves every faculty or ability in a rudimentary or latent state. These faculties develop according to the circumstances in which humans find themselves. The excessive development of some halts or offsets that of others. The overstimulation of the material instincts extinguishes the moral sense, as the development of the moral sense gradually weakens animal faculties.

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