Quotes About Morality

Contemporary moral argument is rationally interminable, because all moral, indeed all evaluative, argument is and always must be rationally interminable. Contemporary moral disagreements of a certain kind cannot be resolved, because no moral disagreements of that kind in any age, past, present or future, can be resolved.

It's the people who don't worry—those who never have any doubts that what they're doing is good and right—they're the ones that cause the problems.

You worry that we're becoming monsters. Merlin, we already were monsters. You didn't make us any worse.

What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right.

If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies.... It would be a sad situation if the wrapper were better than the meat wrapped inside it.

Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it.

I believe that Gandhi's views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil.

Always do what's right; this will gratify some and astonish the rest

It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.

A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

I do not believe in the immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern without any superhuman authority behind it.

As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.

Life is sacred, that is to say, it is the supreme value, to which all other values are subordinate.

If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.

Don't do anything that goes against your conscience, even if your country says so.

You are right in speaking of the moral foundations of science, but you cannot turn around and speak of the scientific foundations of morality.

Science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value, elly judgments of all kinds remain necessary.

Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.

There is nothing divine about morality, it is a purely human affair.

Don't dream of being a good person, be a human being is valuable and gives value to life.

Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.

Is it not better for a man to die for a cause in which he believes, such as peace, than to suffer for a cause in which he does not believe, such as war?

True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness.