Quotes About Morality

It is very wrong to kill any one[.] Oh, I hate the cheap severity of abstract ethics!

He hadn't a single redeeming vice.

My dear Arthur, I never talk scandal. I only talk gossip. What is the difference between scandal and gossip? Oh! Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.

A man who moralizes is a hypocrite, and a woman who does so is invariably plain.

I never came across anyone in whom the moral sense was dominant who was not heartless, cruel, vindictive, log-stupid, and entirely lacking in the smallest sense of humanity. Moral people, as they are termed, are simple beasts.

I should fancy, however, that murder is always a mistake. One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner.

Lord Illingworth told me this morning that there was an orchid there as beautiful as the seven deadly sins.

It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place

Do you know that I am afraid that good people do a great deal of harm in this world? Certainly the greatest harm they do is that they make badness of such extraordinary importance.

Any preoccupation with ideas of what is right or wrong in conduct shows an arrested intellectual development.

Save us from enormities whether open or hidden

Hillel the Elder, author, in the first century before Christ, of the ethic of reciprocity: That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.

le mauvais goût mène au crime (Thaddeus Sholto)

Son las virtudes algo lejano? En cuanto quiero ser virtuoso, inmediatamente estoy alcanzando la virtud

Cuando veas un hombre bueno, trata de imitarle; cuando veas a uno malo, examínate a ti mismo

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

He who searches for evil, must first look at his own reflection.

To be wealthy and honored in an unjust society is a disgrace.

Don't do unto others what you don't want done unto you.

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

To see what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.

Tzu Chang asked Confucius about jen. Confucius said, If you can practice these five things with all the people, you can be called jen. Tzu Chang asked what they were. Confucius said, Courtesy, generosity, honesty, persistence, and kindness. If you are courteous, you will not be disrespected; if you are generous, you will gain everything. If you are honest, people will rely on you. If you are persistent you will get results. If you are kind, you can employ people.

The Master said, "If your conduct is determined solely by considerations of profit you will arouse great resentment.

The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.