Quotes About Morality

Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is Just

I am not a Federalist because I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever....Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.

No nation has ever yet existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man and I as chief Magistrate of this nation am bound to give it the sanction of my example. Good morning Sir. [Replying on his way to church one Sunday to a friend, who said to him "You going to church Mr. J. You do not believe a word in it."]

The clause too, reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who on the contrary still wished to continue it. Our northern brethren also I believe felt a little tender under those censures; for tho' their people have very few slaves themselves yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others.

I tremble when I think that God is just.

Say nothing of my religion. It is known to my God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life; if that has been honest and dutiful to society, the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one. —Thomas Jefferson.

He who permits himself to tell a lie once finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, 'til at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.

Era un vers din Talmud: "Cel care salveaz? o singur? via??, salveaz? întreaga lume.

he who saves the life of one man saves the entire world.

The moral universe had not so much decayed here. It had been inverted, like some black hole, under the pressure of all the Earth's malice - a place where tribes and histories were sucked in and vaporized, and language flew inside out.

there wasn't always much difference between the standfast and the man who ran. Even though presidents and colonels and preachers tried to tell you otherwise, the standfast and the runner were often the same man on different days or at a different hour.

In a fallen world, it was hard to do unambiguous good.

The little hand on time's clock trips away as though measuring seconds; but God knows how much time it is covering when it whisks round heedless of the divisions it passes over! So much is certain, that we have been up here for years. Our brains reel, surely this is an evil dream, though dreamed with nor hashish nor opium; a censor of morals would rebuke us for it.

La belleza engendra pudor

By now, his morality coincided with his curiosity, probably always had. It was the unconditional curiosity of the tourist thirsty for knowledge; a curiosity that, in having tasted the mystery of personality, had perhaps not been all that far from realms emerging here; a curiosity that displayed something of a military character by not trying to evade something forbidden if it might offer itself.

La corrupción es como un pantano sin fondo: de ella se puede esperar todo.

Mais qu'était-ce que l'humanisme ? C'était l'amour des hommes, ce n'était pas autre chose, et par là même l'humanisme était aussi une politique, une attitude de révolte contre tout ce qui souille et déshonore l'idée de l'homme.

Carlyle opina que «es absurdo impartir la bendición a las revoluciones o maldecirlas, pero es importante estudiarlas; es enojoso arrastrarse detrás de ellas, acompañándolas por el fango y la inmundicia; peligroso servirlas; inútil luchar contra ellas; pero es glorioso esparcir, en medio de las ruinas, semillas de fe e ideas morales que contribuyan a la reedificación».

Prägen Sie sich immerhin ein, daß Toleranz zum Verbrechen wird, wenn sie dem Bösen gilt.

Escribir bien casi supondría pensar bien, y esto no está muy lejos del obrar bien.

Las palabras que designan un rasgo de carácter siempre tienen el alcance moral de un juicio, bien sea en forma de elogio, de censura o bajo ambos aspectos.

Sin embargo, no puede decirse que sufriera. Su cabeza y corazón estaban ebrios, y sus pasos seguían las indicaciones del demonio, que se complace en conculcar la dignidad y la razón del ser humano.

Toleranz wird zum Verbrechen, wenn sie dem Bösen gilt.

It seems to me, however, that despite the logical, moral rigor music may appear to display, it belongs to a world of spirits, for whose absolute reliability in matters of human reason and dignity I would not exactly want to put my hand in the fire. That I am nevertheless devoted to it with all my heart is one of those contradictions which, whether a cause for joy or regret, are inseparable from human nature.