Quotes About Morality

Where do all the things you believed go, when all the supporting structure is found to be a myth? How do you know how or on what to take a moral stand, how do you behave when it turns out there are no cosmic rules, no categorical imperatives?

To act morally is not to act out of fear of punishment; it is not to act as one is commanded to act. Rather, it is to act as one ought to act. And how one ought to act is not dependent upon anyone's power, even if the power be Divine.

The worst monsters are the human ones.

Equality is not the empirical claim that all groups of humans are interchangeable; it is the moral principle that individuals should not be judged or constrained by the average properties of their group.

Morality, then, is not a set of arbitrary regulations dictated by a vengeful deity and written down in a book; nor is it the custom of a particular culture or tribe. It is a consequence of the interchangeability of perspectives and the opportunity the world provides for positive-sum games.

The doctrine of the sacredness of the soul sounds vaguely uplifting, but in fact is highly malignant. It discounts life on earth as just a temporary phase that people pass through, indeed, an infinitesimal fraction of their existence…the gradual replacement of lives for souls as the locus of moral value was helped along by the ascendency of skepticism and reason

I don't like bullies. I don't care where they're from.

What would Apollonius of Tyana do?"—always his test for making a difficult decision—

The notion that anyone should be indefinitely locked away, even for the most horrible crime, is too cruel even for Roman tastes.

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

La religion est une insulte à la dignité humaine. Que ce soit avec ou sans elle, il y aura toujours des gens bien qui font de bonnes choses, et des mauvais qui font de mauvaises choses. Mais pour que des gens bien agissent mal, il faut la religion.

Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion.

When an evil masochist dies, does he go to hell, or would heaven be a better punishment?

I was with my girlfriend, and we saw eight big guys pushing an old lady around. My girlfriend says, "Do something about it." So I went up to them and asked, "Is that any way to treat an elderly lady?" They said, "It's one way." So I thought, "That's reasonable."

Away with them, away; we should not believe fairy stories if we wish to be good. Think of them as persons from the fairy wood.

Para mim, estar inocente significa não se ter nascido ou estar-se morto. Admito isto, estou pronto a reconhecer que há muitas espécies diferentes de culpa: uma culpa mais inocente do que a da maioria, e uma mais carregada, uma que transborda do sentimento da falta e outra que corre apenas gota a gota.

The cool contemplation of other people's suffering while one exhibits polished manners in a society that is deemed civil is only a shade less immoral than the direct infliction of suffering. Thus, civilization, as it is often practiced today, is really manufactured, inauthentic civilization.

There is a higher law than the law of government. That's the law of conscience.

Aninka would not speak the words. They would, she felt, turn her tongue black: words of hatred and falsehood.

There was no easy path to what was right, what was truth.

You can't bear to think that Valraven is like the rest of us-a mixture of attributes, both good and bad.

Have you ever stopped to consider what changed Valraven from the friend you loved into the cold creature that could kill without thinking?

The serpent has the potential to be used for good or evil. It represents the creative force or building blocks of the universe, which is dualistic.

A true magus understands he has to dance on both sides of the coin. Utter goodness is as bad as pure evil.