Quotes About Morality

Virtue does not remain as an abandoned orphan; it must of necessity have neighbors.

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then?

All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency.

A maior parte das coisas que meus semelhantes consideram boas, creio no fundo da alma que são más, e se de alguma coisa me arrependo é provável que seja do meu bom comportamento. Que diabo se apossou de mim para que me comportasse tão bem?

If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood.

Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice.

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think right.

greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior.

I am resolved that I will not through humility become the devil's attorney.

Toda nuestra vida es de una moral sorprendente. Entre la virtud y el vicio jamás hay un instante de tregua

The most distinct and beautiful statement of any form must take at last the mathematical form.We might so simplify the rules of moral philosophy, as well as of arithmetic, that one formula would express them both

The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad

I do not care to trace the course of my dollar, if I could, till it buys a man or a musket to shoot one with—the dollar is innocent—but I am concerned to trace the effects of my allegiance.

The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it.

What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom?

Il solo obbligo che ho il diritto di assumermi è di fare in ogni momento quello che penso sia giusto fare.

A man is not a good man to me because he will feed me if I should be starving, or warm me if I should be freezing, or pull me out of a ditch if I should ever fall into one. I can find you a Newfoundland dog that will do as much.

Can there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?

La legge non ha mai reso gli uomini neppure poco più giusti; e anzi, a causa del rispetto della legge, perfino gli onesti sono quotidianamente trasformati in agenti d'ingiustizia.

En büyük ve en yayg?n hatalar?n sürdürülebilmesi için olabildiÄŸince tarafs?z bir erdem gerekir.

there is greater anxiety, commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean and unpatched clothes, than to have a sound conscience.

The peculiarity of ill temper is that it is the vice of the virtuous.

Whenever love is translated into hatred, we know that sin has entered and wreaked its havoc.

Esistono certi scrittori religiosi o meglio morali, i quali sostengono che in questo mondo la virtù è la via sicura della felicità e il vizio quella dell'infelicità: dottrina veramente sana e consolante, contro cui abbiamo un'obiezione sola, e cioè che non è vera.