requitable

Updated: May 19, 2025

Requitable benefits, even from equals or inferiors, dispose to love; for hence arises emulation in benefiting 'the most noble and profitable contention possible, wherein the victor is pleased with his victory, and the other revenged by confessing it. He passes under review other dispositions, such as fear of oppression, vain-glory, ambition, pusillanimity, frugality, &c., with reference to the course of conduct they prompt to.

Alexander Bain - Moral Science; a Compendium of Ethics