It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig
satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.
And if the fool, or the pig, are a different opinion, it is because
they only know their own side of the question. The other party to
the comparison knows both sides….
Capacity for the nobler feelings is in most
natures a very tender plant, easily killed, not only by hostile
influences, but by mere want of sustenance...
~ John Stuart Mill
Always among my favourite philosophical observations, John Stuart Mill's scathing distinction was directed at Jeremy Bentham's formulation of The Greatest Happiness Principle which Mill thought to be unelevated. Some say the criticism was more of personal than philosophical.
On the other hand, Mill himself displays a typically 19th century snobbery in his estimation of which economic class is, by simple virtue of its comfort, noblest.
This design features The Fool Tarot card (the "Pamela-A" edition) and a close inspection might reveal the fool's abstract resemblance to George W. Bush.
OK. It might not. It's pretty abstract. But I had fun attempting to merge him in there anyway.
