"A third finds in himself a talent which with the help of some culture might make him a useful man
in many respects. But he finds himself in comfortable circumstances and prefers to indulge in
pleasure rather than to take pains in enlarging and improving his happy natural capacities. He asks,
however, whether his maxim of neglect of his natural gifts, besides agreeing with his inclination to
indulgence, agrees also with what is called duty. He sees then that a system of nature could indeed
subsist with such a universal law although men (like the South Sea islanders) should let their talents
rest and resolve to devote their lives merely to idleness, amusement, and propagation of their
species- in a word, to enjoyment; but he cannot possibly will that this should be a universal law of
nature, or be implanted in us as such by a natural instinct. For, as a rational being, he necessarily
wills that his faculties be developed, since they serve him and have been given him, for all sorts of
possible purposes."
(Quoted from the Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals,
as translated by T.K. Abbott)