Quotes About Morality

Pure practical reason, even with a good knowledge of the facts, will not take you to morality.

If someone was going to hell, Kundavai would stop him and take him to heaven. That's one kind of power. But do you know what Nandini would do? It must be said that her power goes a step further. She would convince him that hell is heaven, and make him jump happily into hell!

Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was even made.

Even if, by some especially unfortunate fate or by the niggardly provision of stepmotherly nature, [the good will] should be wholly lacking in the power to accomplish its purpose; if with the greatest effort it should yet achieve nothing, and only the good will should remain (not, to be sure, as a mere wish but as the summoning of all the means in our power), yet would it, like a jewel, still shine by its own light as something which has its full value in itself.

Zwei Dinge erfüllen das Gemüt mit immer neuer und zunehmender Bewunderung und Ehrfurcht, je öfter und anhaltender sich das Nachdenken damit beschäftigt: der gestirnte Himmel über mir und das moralische Gesetz in mir.

I'm fascinated with the stories that we tell. Real histories become fantasies and fairy tales, morality tales and fables.

His character is two-sided and, according to his training, his character qualities are either nurtured into virtues or allowed to degenerate into vices.

Auschwitz was a dark epiphany, providing us with a terrible vision of what life is like when all sense of the sacred is lost and the human being--whoever he or she may be--is no longer revered as an inviolable mystery.

Religious people often prefer to be right rather than compassionate. Often, they don't want to give up their egotism. They want their religion to endorse their ego, their identity.

A love that is based on the goodness of those whom you love is a mercenary affair.

The only way to show a true respect for God is to act morally while ignoring God's existence." ? A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

There is also a widespread assumption that the Bible is supposed to provide us with role models and give us precise moral teaching, but this was not the intention of the biblical authors. The Eden story is certainly not a morality tale; like any paradise myth, it is an imaginary account of the infancy of the human race.

Humanism is itself a religion without God—not all religions, of course, are theistic.

Ultimately, however, he held that a person's theology or beliefs, like the ritual he took part in, were unimportant. They could be interesting but not a matter of final significance. The only thing that counted was the good life;

Petty theft, murder, forgery, arson, and the abduction of women were all capital offenses, so the death penalty for heresy was neither unusual nor extreme.50

Our Master's Way," explained one of his pupils, "is nothing but this: doing-your-best-for-others (zhong) and consideration (shu)."3

Het hoofdthema [van het verhaal van Kaïn En Abel] is het gevecht tussen eigenliefde en de liefde voor God. 'Kaïn' betekende 'bezit'. Kaïn wilde alles voor zichzelf houden en streefde enkel zijn eigenbelang na. 'Abel' betekende 'degene die alles in verband brengt met God'. Deze kwaliteiten waren in elk individu aanwezig en streden voortdurend om de voorrang.

You could stamp on this natural shoot of compassion, Mencius argued, just as you can cripple or deform your body, but if you cultivate this altruistic tendency assiduously, it will acquire a dynamic power of its own.23 The

Shu required that "all day and every day" we looked into our own hearts, discovered what caused us pain, and then refrained, under all circumstances, from inflicting that distress upon other people. It demanded that people no longer put themselves into a special, separate category but constantly related their own experience to that of others. Confucius was the first to promulgate the Golden Rule. For Confucius it had transcendent value.

Mozi believed that a policy could be called virtuous only if it enriched the poor, prevented pointless death, and contributed to public order.

Golden rule is not a notional doctrine that you either agree with, or make yourself believe in. It is a method and the only adequate test of any method is to put it into practice.

Again, what works well in the spiritual domain can become destructive and even immoral if interpreted literally and practically in the mundane world. It

What mattered was not what you believed but how you behaved. Religion was about doing things that changed you at a profound level.

The Golden Rule requires self-knowledge; it asks that we use our own feelings as a guide to our behavior with others. If we treat ourselves harshly, this is the way we are likely to treat other people. So we need to acquire a healthier and more balanced knowledge of our strengths as well as our weaknesses. As