Quotes About Morality

Okay, let's have it.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil; God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." Our generation has mastered the art of looking the other way when evil presents its face of terror and death.

If a group of beings from another planet were to land on Earth -- beings who considered themselves as superior to you as you feel yourself to be to other animals -- would you concede them the rights over you that you assume over other animals?

you ought to be good even if you did not believe that you would burn in torment forever if you were bad;

It is often said that second thoughts are best. So they are in matters of judgment but not in matters of conscience.

It seems logical that he who supports total war in principle cannot complain of a war against civilians. The crux of the matter is whether total war in its present form is justifiable, even when it serves a just purpose.

Mankind must destroy anti-humanity before it becomes extinct itself.

principle cannot complain of a war against civilians. The crux of the matter is whether total war in its present form is justifiable, even when it serves a just purpose. Does it not have material and spiritual evil as its consequences which far exceed whatever good might result?

You can't get around what's right, though, he said. When we stop loving them, that's when they win.

A law is not good merely because the legislature wills it, but the legislature has the mortal duty to will only that which is good.

Though not all, by any means, were so open about their purposes, all of them showed us how they felt about the Negro, the idea that we were people of such morality that nothing could offend us. These men, young and old, however, were less offensive than the ones who treated us like machines, as though we had no human existence whatsoever. When they paid me, they looked as though I were a stone or a post. They looked and saw nothing.

THAT'S WHAT POWERFUL MEN DO TO THIS COUNTRY - IT'S A BEAUTIFUL, SEXY, BREATHLESS COUNTRY, AND POWERFUL MEN USE IT TO TREAT THEMSELVES TO A THRILL! THEY SAY THEY LOVE IT BUT THEY DON'T MEAN IT. THEY SAY THINGS TO MAKE THEMSELVES APPEAR GOOD - THEY MAKE THEMSELVES APPEAR MORAL...THE COUNTRY WANTS A SAVIOUR. THE COUNTRY IS A SUCKER FOR POWERFUL MEN WHO LOOK GOOD. WE THINK THEY'RE MORALISTS AND THEN THEY JUST USE US.

In this dirty-minded world you are either somebody's wife or somebody's whore, or fast on your way to becoming one or the other.

In this dirty minded world, you are either someone's wife or someone's whore.

Is it a democratic society that condemns people to the accident of conception? What are we-monkeys? If you expect people to be responsible for their children, you have to give them the right to choose whether or not to have children. What are you people thinking of? You're not only crazy! You're ogres!

This was not of the nature of a Christlike lesson for Owen Meany to learn, as he lay in the manger, that someone you hate can give you a hard-on.

Here in St. Cloud's," Dr. Larch wrote, " I have been given the choice of playing God or leaving practically everything up to chance. It is my experience that practically everything is left up to chance much of the time; men who believe in good and evil, and who believe that good should win, should watch for those moments when it is possible to play God – we should seize those moments. There won't be may

It's because even a good man can't always be right, that we need ... rules.

He wished he could arrange a maiming as a kind of moral lesson

Men who believe in good and evil, and who believe that good should win, should watch for those moments when it is possible to play God

woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil.

If (a writer) has applied himself to an art for 15 or 20 years and they've gotten good at it, and they're expected to do something else to support themselves while the industry that sells this craft supports itself very well, something is badly wrong. Morally wrong.

Lies of omission count as lies, sweetie—they can be the worst ones.

Even I knew better than to sleep with a ghost. And it was the wrong time for a moral dilemma.