Quotes About Morality

All wickedness comes from weakness. The child is wicked only because he is weak. Make him strong; he will be good. He who could do everything would never do harm.

Truth is an homage that the good man pays to his own dignity.

Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.

He who blushes is already guilty.

T]he man who meditates is a depraved animal.

God makes all things good; man meddles with them and they become evil.

Now it is easy to perceive that the moral part of love is a factitious sentiment, engendered by society, and cried up by the women with great care and address in order to establish their empire, and secure command to that sex which ought to obey.

How could I become wicked, when I had nothing but examples of gentleness before my eyes, and none around me but the best people in the world?

If I had remained free, obscure, and alone placed in the situation Nature designed me for, I should have done nothing but what was right, for my heart bears not the feeds of any mischievous passion. Had I been invisible and powerful as the Almighty, I should have been benevolent and good like him: it is power and freedom that make good men, weakness and slavery never made any but wicked ones.

From this moment there would be no question of virtue or morality; for despotism cui ex honesto nulla est spes, wherever it prevails, admits no other master; it no sooner speaks than probity and duty lose their weight and blind obedience is the only virtue which slaves can still practice.

The good man can be proud of his virtue because it is his. But of what is the intelligent man proud?

We cannot teach children the danger of lying to men without feeling as men, the greater danger of lying to children.

Los límites de lo posible en las cosas morales son más estrechos de lo que pensamos; nuestras debilidades, nuestros vicios, nuestros prejuicios son lo que restringen

Los hombres son perversos; serían peores aún si hubieran tenido la desgracia de nacer sabiendo.

One advantage resulting from good actions is that they elevate the soul to a disposition of attempting still better; for such is human weakness, that we must place among our good deeds an abstinence from those crimes we are tempted to commit.

DoÄŸruluk yolunu seçiÅŸim, doÄŸru olma duygusundan çok gerçeÄŸi sevmeme dayan?r; gerçekten, uygulamada, eÄŸriyle doÄŸrunun soyut kavramlar?n? deÄŸil, vicdan?m?n ahlak alan?ndaki yolunu izledim. ÇoÄŸu kez, masal anlatt?m; ama pek az yalan söyledim.

It frequently happens that a villainous action does not torment us the instant we commit it, but on recollection, and sometimes even after a number of years have elapsed, for the remembrance of crimes is not to be extinguished.

La integridad de un hombre de bien es siempre antipática a los malvados.

Un día tomé el Mercurio de Francia, y andando y leyendo encontré este tema propuesto por la Academia de Dijon para el premio del siguiente año: El progreso de las ciencias y de las artes ¿ha contribuido a corromper o a purificar las costumbres? Así

Men, despite all their ethics, would never be anything more than monsters if nature had not given them pity to bolster their reason.

This is how in every condition the guilty strong person saves himself at the expense of the innocent weak one...

Force is a physical power; I do not see how its effects could produce morality. To yield to force is an act of necessity, not of will; it is at best an act of prudence. In what sense can it be a moral duty?

Flattery, or rather condescension, is not always a vice, it is more often a virtue, especially in young people. The kindness with which a man treats us attaches us to him; one does not give way to him in order to deceive him, one does so in order not to make him sad, not to return him harm for good.

Rien de vigoureux, rien de grand ne peut partir d'une plume toute vénale.