Quotes About Morality

And every man ought to say to himself, "Am I really the kind of man who has the right to act in such a way that humanity might guide itself by my actions?" And if he does not say that to himself, he is masking his anguish. There is no question here of the kind of anguish which would lead to quietism, to inaction. It is a matter of a simple sort of anguish that anybody who has had responsibilities is familiar with.

If God does not exist, are we provided with any values or commands that could legitimise our behaviour.

what we might call everyday morality is exclusive of ethical anguish.

This is what I mean when I say that man is condemned to be free: condemned, because he did not create himself, yet nonetheless free, because once cast into the world, he is responsible for everything that he does.

Madame Picard believed that a child should be allowed to read anything: 'A book never does any harm if it is well written.' While she was there, I had once asked permission to read Madame Bovary and my mother, in an oversweet voice, had said: 'But if my darling reads books like that at his age, what will he do when he grows up?' 'I shall live them!' This reply had met with the most complete and lasting success.

There are two ways to go to the gas chamber, free and not free.

Every man ought to say to himself, Am I really the kind of man who has the right to act in such a way that humanity might guide itself by my actions?

Thus pleasure itself, also becoming a right, lost its aggressive futility.

That is the idea I shall try to convey when I say that man is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, yet, in other respects is free; because, once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. The existentialist does not believe in the power of passion. He will never agree that a sweeping passion is a ravaging torrent which fatally leads a man to certain acts and is therefore an excuse. He thinks that man is responsible for his passion.

man being condemned to be free carries the weight of the whole world on his shoulders; he is responsible for the world and for himself as a way of being.

Dostoevsky said, "If God didn't exist, everything would be possible." That is the very starting point of existentialism. Indeed, everything is permissible if God does not exist, and as a result man is forlorn, because neither within him nor without does he find anything to cling to. He can't start making excuses for himself

Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. It is up to you to give [life] a meaning." – Jean-Paul Sartre

The existentialist portrays a coward as one who makes himself a coward by his actions, a hero who makes himself heroic.

It is that, in a given society which is defined through its mode of production by institutions governing human relations, human life is ethically livable or that, if we prefer, man is always possible.

Qarjet e të rriturve ishin si një katastrofë mistike, diçka si lotët që derdh Zoti për ligësinë e njerëzve.

Most people don't go to work and beat up a 13-year-old. It's a really freaky thing.

I hope there's some kind of morality in all my work.

The evil-doer mourns in the next; he mourns in both. He mourns and suffers when he sees the evil of his own work.

History isn't a seesaw. If you have a really bad regime on one side, the actions on the other side don't automatically become good. It doesn't work that way.

Character comes from following our highest sense of right, from trusting ideas without being sure they'll work.

No ethic is as ethical as the work ethic.

I think the most important thing I learned from my dad is the importance of telling the truth...treat other people well, work hard at the job and tell the truth.

Ethics and religion must not stay at home when we go to work.

I can be bought. If they paid me enough, I'd work for the Klan.