Quotes About Morality

It is impossible for me to see' why any belief in the supernatural is necessary to have a keen perception of right and wrong.

Subjects who are governed by the threats and promises of a king are merely slaves. They are not governed by the ideal, by noble views of right and wrong. They are obedient cowards, controlled by fear, or beggars governed by rewards—by alms.

For my part, I am willing to give up heaven to get rid of hell. I had rather there should be no heaven than that any solitary soul should be condemned to suffer for ever and ever.

I believe that all actions that tend to the well-being of sentient beings are virtuous and moral.

If the Bible is the work of God, it should contain the sublimest truths, it should excel the works of man, it should contain the loftiest definitions of justice, the best conceptions of human liberty, the clearest outlines of duty, the tenderest and noblest thoughts.

What is morality? It is the best thing to do under the circumstances. What is the best thing to do under the circumstances? That which will increase the sum of human happiness—or lessen it the least. Happiness in its highest, noblest form, is the only good; that which increases or preserves or creates happiness is moral—that which decreases it, or puts it in peril, is immoral.

Lucy's idea of sympathy compared unfavorably with some of the interrogation techniques they had used at Guantanamo.

But as I'm not going around killing people I don't like, I don't think there's much wrong with admitting some people contribute more to the world than others.' 'So you don't subscribe to "any man's death diminishes me"?' said Robin. 'I wouldn't feel remotely diminished by the deaths of some of the bastards I've met.

a man with as dirty a record as his!… This is the sort of man that poses as a leader of the people! And successfully, too! Henrik Ibsen, Rosmersholm

Friends of friends had offered everything from management roles in the close protection industry to business partnerships, but the itch to detect, solve, and reimpose order on the moral universe could not be extinguished in him. He doubted it ever would be.

I'm living for giving the devil his due51

What makes people do things like that?" Robin asked, in genuine perplexity. "They're shits," said Strike.

She became a morality tale stiff with Schadenfreude, and so many columnists made allusion to Icarus that Private Eye ran a special column.

His brain and his heart knew this, but he couldn't stop himself, and the razor of his conscience lent the undeniable thrill of pain to the act.

I am inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot. Men are not superior by reason of the accidents of race or color. They are superior who have the best heart--the best brain.

If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane.

Courage without conscience is a wild beast.

Here lies the characteristic paradox of good and evil: for action, in terms of practical effects, is superior to inaction, and the congenitally active evil an can frequently win advantage over the sometimes inactive good. Indeed, the fundamentally stable and restful spirit of goodness is a lure to evil inspirations, an encouragement to villains who are aware that, in the moral and political chess game, they have the white pieces and the first move.

A nations moral life is, of course, the foundation of its culture.

Surely a number of such people want to do the right thing, are well-intentioned, but just as surely some do not act from creditable intentions. Some of our elites…professors, journalists, makers of motion pictures and television entertainment, et al.…delight in nihilism and destruction as much as do the random killers in our cities. Their weapons are just different.

Homo economicus would cheat only if he stood to benefit by enough and if the odds of being caught were sufficiently low. So the mere fact that he does not have a reputation for being a cheat tells us only that he's been prudent.

In matters of conscience, first thoughts are best. In matters of prudence, last thoughts are best.

The innocence of the intention abates nothing of the mischief of the example.

Power brings a man many luxuries, but a clean pair of hands is seldom among them.