Quotes About Morality

Honesty and integrity are absolutely essential for success in life - all areas of life. The really good news is that anyone can develop both honesty and integrity.

Young believers get a taste of grace, and they sometimes think it doesn't matter what they do; the sky's the limit! But sooner or later, they face the painful consequences of breaking God's laws, and they learn to value the restrictions

Whether we consider Nazi Germany or Abu Ghraib prison, there were many people who observed what was happening and said nothing. At Abu Ghraib, one photo shows two soldiers smiling before a pyramid of naked prisoners while a dozen other soldiers stand around watching passively. If you observe such abuses and don't say, "This is wrong! Stop it!" you give tacit approval to continue. You are part of the silent majority that makes evil deeds more acceptable.

We all like to think that the line between good and evil is impermeable--that people who do terrible things, such as commit murder, treason, or kidnapping, are on the evil side of this line, and the rest of us could never cross it. But the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram studies revealed the permeability of that line. Some people are on the good side only because situations have never coerced or seduced them to cross over.

When I look back on it, I think, "Why didn't you stop the cruelty earlier?" To stand back was contrary to my upbringing and nature. When I stood back as a noninterfering experimental scientist, I was, in a sense, as drawn into the power of the situation as any prisoners and guards.

The term "just war" contains an internal contradiction. War is inherently unjust, and the great challenge of our time is how to deal with evil, tyranny, and oppression without killing huge numbers of people.

With the indiscriminate nature of modern military technology (no such thing as a "smart bomb," it turns out) all wars are wars against civilians, and are therefore inherently immoral. This is true even when a war is considered "just," because it is fought against a tyrant, against an aggressor, to correct a stolen boundary.

Any humane and reasonable person must conclude that if the ends, however desirable, are uncertain and the means are horrible and certain, these means must not be employed.

What happened in World War II was what happened in war generally, and that was whatever the initiating cause, and however clear the moral reason is for the war in which one side looks better than the other, by the time the war ends both sides have been engaged in evil.

The horror of Communism, Stalinism, is not that bad people do bad things -- they always do. It's that good people do horrible things thinking they are doing something great.

What Americans don't want to admit ... is that not only is there not a contradiction between state regulation and freedom, but in order for us to actually be free in our social interactions, there must be an extremely elaborated network of health, law, institutions, moral rules and so on.

In the end, I suspect, being female will do nothing for Sheba, except deny her the grandeur of genuine villainy.

One pretends that manners are the formalisation of basic kindness and consideration, but a great deal of the time they're simply aesthetics dressed up as moral principles, aren't they?

We are very puritan in America. We still hold true to these really antiquated values, this idea of the sanctity of marriage.

It just seems our species is happier when we are good. Goodness is not guaranteed. A life of principle requires practice…. from Unless, a novel by Carol Shields

There is a story about a Cherokee grandfather who is teaching his grandson about life. He says to his grandson, "A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One is evil; he is anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, and superiority. The other is good; he is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, generosity, and compassion. This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too.

George is essentially a very good person'" Joan said, "But that is one of those meaningless sentences. What is a good person? Under the worst of circumstances, who can say what we would do? For all we know, we might be the worst people on earth.

we shift around on a seesaw moral continuum for our whole lives. Nobody stays the same!

There are worse things than telling a lie.

The whole what-goes-around-comes-around thing is simply our way of trying to make sense out of things that make no sense. Great stuff happens to bad people. Bad shit happens to good people. This is just the way it is.

Anyone who remains silent in the face of murder is an accomplice to murder. Anyone who does not condemn approves.

Któ? móg? si? w ?askawo?ci porówna? z agitatorem? Kto si? osta? dobrym przy nim? Nawet Bóg ju? nie by? dobrym, bo mówi?: Nie rusz cudzego. A przybysz ze ?wiata, nios?cy czerwon? gazet?, mówi?: Co cudze, to twoje. Któ? wi?c móg? by? od niego lepszym?

For an educated person, intelligence is important but character is more important.

Happiness is there when you are morally clear to yourself.