Quotes About Morality

There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.

It is better to reveal a weakness than allow oneself be suspected of a vice.

A life lived with integrity - even if it lacks the trappings of fame and fortune is a shining star in whose light others may follow in the years to come.

No wonder the priests spoke of temptation's lure. Sin was thrilling, indeed.

Kings can choose other than to sin. They can choose death instead.

It's when we face for a moment the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know the taint in our own selves, that awe cracks the mind's shell and enters the heart.

Even if people do wrong, we're social animals, so what can we do about stopping them doing the same things in future? Saying people are 'bad' or 'evil' is just an unwillingness to engage an unwillingness to try to empathise. That sanctimonious attitude doesn't help anyone.

Nikki said he got Susan pregnant when she was thirteen.' Lizzie nods and cringes and gives a little grunt. 'It's very young.' She grunts non-committally again, shrugs and takes another biscuit. 'I can't explain that you.' 'Isn't he a paedophile then?' 'Yeah, technically. But then he was still with her until she was nineteen, so then what?

One [belief] is that violence is caused by a deficit of morality and justice. On the contrary, violence is often caused by a surfeit of morality and justice, at least as they are conceived in the minds of the perpetrators. Steven Pinker

Fame is a vapor, popularity is an accident, and money takes wings. The only thing that endures is character.

Which would be worse, to live as a monster or to die as a good man?

The death penalty is becoming a way of life in this country.

There is a tendency today to turn moral issues into amoral ones, to argue that many of the decisions and choices we make are merely personal choices that lie outside the ethical purview. For example, in the current debate about euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide, some argue that this is not a moral issue but simply a matter of controlling one's life. Ethical questions need not be raised.

we must be open to the fact that in regard to some ethical judgments, our focus will be more on the wise, judicious course of action than on the absolute right course of action.

Opponents of capital punishment argue that the state has no right to take a murderer's life. Apparently, one fact that abolitionists forget or overlook is that the state is acting not only on behalf of society, but also on behalf of the murdered person and the murdered person's family.

How a society channels male aggression is one of the greatest questions as to whether that society will survive. That's why I am not against violence in the media, I am against the glorification of immoral violence.

If your religion doesn't teach you the difference between good and evil, your religion is worse than useless.

Goodness is about character - integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people.

If the West believed in something, it would prevail overnight. The problem is you can't beat bad faith with no faith.

Very rarely do people make big compromises with their integrity. Almost every compromise is a small one that is easily justified. The downhill slide is usually a result of many little compromises.

Societies are preoccupied with just about everything other than making good people. For some, it is intelligence. Parents are often more concerned with their children's IQs than their children's characters. And many people confuse higher education with decency and moral insight.

Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you're a good person is like expecting a bull not to attack you because you're a vegetarian.

Everybody has a job to do. There are people in Iraq on both sides of this war who do what they do for religious reasons, and they feel with God on their side. Some people are good at annihilating people. Maybe that's their gift.

A person without Character is like a beautiful flower with no fragrance, IMHO. Beauty, knowledge and wealth become worthless in the absence of Character. Life loses its meaning forever, once the Character is lost or compromised.....just like a beautiful flower that has no fragrance.