Quotes About Morality

To prefer evil to good is not in human nature and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less.

And this which you deem of no moment is the very highest of all: that is whether you have a right idea of the gods, whereby you may live your life well or ill.

A man ought not to return evil for evil, as many think, since at no time ought we to do an injury to our neighbour.*

Justice will only exist where those not affected by injustice are filled with the same amount of indignation as those offended.

The greatest penalty of evildoing - namely, to grow into the likeness of bad men.

You should not honor men more than truth.

For he who steals a little steals with the same wish as he who steals much, but with less power, and he who takes up a greater amount; not having deposited it, is wholly unjust.

that those supports may be shaken, and collapse, for the popularity of evil men is as fickle as the men themselves.

Peccant, qvia nihil peccant.

Bad men rule by the feebleness of the ruled; and this is just; the triumph of weaklings would not be just.

The one question I specifically recall being asked was how a man as evil as Hitler could paint such delightful watercolors.

The giving of riches and honors to a wicked man is like giving strong wine to him that hath a fever.

The omission of good is no less reprehensible than the commission of evil.

The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education.

The man who is completely wise and virtuous has no need of glory, except so far as it disposes and eases his way to action by the greater trust that it procures him.

Vultures are the most righteous of birds: they do not attack even the smallest living creature.

A few vices are sufficient to darken many virtues.

The fact is that men who know nothing of decency in their own lives are only too ready to launch foul slanders against their betters and to offer them up as victims to the evil deity of popular envy.

For there is no virtue, the honor and credit for which procures a man more odium than that of justice; and this, because more than any other, it acquires a man power and authority among the common people.

The truly pious must negotiate a difficult course between the precipice of godlessness and the marsh of superstition.

They should live all together on an equal footing; merit to be their only road to eminence, and the disgrace of evil, and credit of worthy acts, their one measure of difference between man and man.

It was glorious to acquire a throne by justice, yet more glorious to prefer justice before a throne; the same virtue which made the one appear worthy of regal power exalted the other to the disregard of it.

For if they do not receive the seed of good doctrines and share with their husbands in intellectual advancement, they, left to themselves, conceive many untoward ideas and low designs and emotions.

That best and justest fabric of things was of no long continuance, because it wanted that cement which should have kept all together, education.