Quotes About Morality

An autocratic system of coercion, in my opinion soon degenerates. For force always attract men of low morality.

The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.

Science has therefore been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior 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.

Evil is the absence of God.

How vile and despicable war seems to me! I would rather be hacked to pieces than take part in such an abominable business.

For any one who is pervaded with the sense of causal law in all that happens, who accepts in real earnest the assumption of causality, the idea of a Being who interferes with the sequence of events in the world is absolutely impossible. Neither the religion of fear nor the social-moral religion can have any hold on him.

Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.

We have emerged from a war in which we had to accept the degradingly low ethical standards of the enemy. But instead of feeling liberated from his standards, and set free to restore the sanctity of human life and the safety of noncombatants, we are in effect making the low standards of the enemy in the last war our own for the present. Thus we are starting toward another war degraded by our own choice.

I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves—such an ethical basis I call more proper for a herd of swine.

Humor, motivations, moral,gods,energy,secrecy

Die Welt wird nicht bedroht von den Menschen, die böse sind, sondern von denen, die das Böse zulassen.

Je méprise un homme qui peut être satisfait par une moelle épinière, cet homme ne mérite pas un cerveau humain.

A man's ethical behavior 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.

Dal mio punto di vista, uccidere in guerra non è affatto meglio che commettere un banale assassinio

While it is true that scientific results are entirely independent from religious or moral considerations, those individuals to whom we owe the great creative achievements of science were all of them imbued with the truly religious conviction that this universe of ours is something perfect and susceptible to the rational striving for knowledge.

The highest principles for our aspirations and judgments are given to us in the Jewish-Christian religious tradition.

La guerre est la chose la plus méprisable. Je préférerais me laisser assassiner que de participer à cette ignominie.

I do not believe that a man should be restrained in his daily actions by being afraid of punishment after death or that he should do things only because in this way he will be rewarded after he dies.

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

Se as pessoas são boas só porque temem a punição, e esperam a recompensa, então nós somos mesmo uns pobres coitados.

In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.

It is abhorrent to me when a fine intelligence is paired with an unsavory character

am quite aware that it is necessary for the achievement of the objective of an organization that one man should do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. An autocratic system of coercion, in my opinion, soon degenerates. For force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels.

Creo que la sobrevalorización de lo intelectual en nuestra educación, dirigida hacia la eficiencia y la practicidad, ha perjudicado los valores éticos.