Quotes About Morality

Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons!

The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom...

Our morality seems to me only a check on the ultimate domination of force, just as our politeness is a check on the impulse of every pig to put his feet in the trough.

We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practise, and another which we practise but seldom preach.

What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, and immorality is what they dislike.

We shall never be able to effect physical disarmament until we have succeeded in effecting moral disarmament. People don't fight for the reasons they give for it after they have got into the war; they fight because something has happened; because a train of circumstances has happened that puts their nerves on edge which makes them unhappy in their suspicions; which makes them feel unsafe and insecure until by a continuation of that mentality they come to the conclusion.

Poetry is not a civilizer, rather the reverse, for great poetry appeals to the most primitive instincts. It is not necessarily a moralizer; it does not necessarily improve one's character; it does not even teach good manners. It is a beautiful work of nature, like an eagle or a high sunrise. You owe it no duty. If you like it, listen to it; if not, let it alone.

History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.

Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.

What we call real estate — the solid ground to build a house on — is the broad foundation on which nearly all the guilt of this world rests. A man will commit almost any wrong — he will heap up an immense pile of wickedness, as hard as granite, and which will weigh as heavily upon his soul, to eternal ages — only to build a great, gloomy, dark-chambered mansion, for himself to die in, and for his posterity to be miserable in.

Well! some people talk of morality, and some of religion, but give me a little snug PROPERTY.

...yet I am, and have always been, and shall now always be, a revolutionary writer, because our laws make law impossible; our liberties destroy all freedom; our property is organized robbery; our morality is an impudent hypocrisy; our wisdom is administered by inexperienced or malexperienced dupes, our power wielded by cowards and weaklings, and our honor false in all its points.

The preachers who preach the beauty of truth, honesty and a useful, helpful life, I am with, head, heart and hand. The preachers who declare that there can be no such thing as a beautiful life unless it will accept superstition, I am against, tooth, claw, club, tongue and pen.

HELL. A place where the Ten Commandments have a police force behind them.

The Christian Right is neither.

The man who kicks up a shindy will probably improve the morals of mankind; he will beyond any question improve his own. In short, I believe getting into hot water. I think it keeps you clean.

The mad scientist was once only a creature of gothic romance; now he is everywhere, busy torturing atoms and animals in his laboratory.

If you lend me your ears, I shall doubtless take your hearts too. That I may not lead you into any wrong, let me warn you of this. Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect. Be true to your own mind and conscience, your heart and your soul.

Conservatives say teaching sex education in the public schools will promote promiscuity. With our education system? If we promote promiscuity the same way we promote math or science, they've got nothing to worry about.

eudemonism." "Forget

Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.

The idea of a good society is something you do not need a religion and eternal punishment to buttress; you need a religion if you are terrified of death.

The moral of my book is that anyone who doesn't succeed in bringing his personal relations and those of his family into a secure state is also incapable of assuming an effective position in civil life.

There are so many today who are given to judging the good bad and the bad good. They act not to right but to cross purpose.