Quotes About Morality

Ir en contra de la corriente general es algo sumamente incómodo. Puede que la mayoría de las miserias morales e intelectuales se cometan por eso: por no contradecir las ideas de tus patronos, de tus vecinos, de tus amigos. Un pensamiento independiente es un lugar solitario y ventoso.

Nadie se resignaba ya a ser en parte bueno y en parte malo, como siempre habían sido, sino que, enardecidos por la grandilocuencia de sus propias mentiras todos querían hacerse pasar por puros y perfectos.

Por eso sus obras policiacas (setenta y nueve novelas, diecinueve piezas de teatro) son mundos circulares perfectamente explicables, juegos matemáticos para alivio no sólo de la cabeza sino del corazón, universos previsibles en donde el bien y el mal ocupan lugares prefijados.

La vida es justamente eso, un camino azaroso entre tentaciones; y la probidad no depende únicamente de la virtud de cada cual, sino también, y en cierta medida, de la suerte. De cómo, cuándo y dónde te han tentado.

I suppose that one of the reasons we find it so hard to come to terms with the Holocaust is that pre-Nazi German society looks so like our own at the same period, and we are forced to the unpalatable conclusion that if it happened there because of lack of virtue in its members, we must have been similarly lacking and might have gone the same way.

Man's inhumanity to man, unleashed, was an obscenity, and that obscenity was each person's own private responsibility.

Money is only as good as the people who possess it. It can be squandered and wasted, or it can be used prudently, to enrich and enhance.

We may avoid shame if we choose, for shame seldom takes us unawares but has its warning cry, and we can hear that cry as clearly as we can hear the coming of the north wind... The man lying in the mud hadn't heard the coming of the north wind.

I used to think the world was divided into good people and bad people, that you could pin responsibility for evil on certain definite people and punish the guilty. I'm still going through the motions.

She said surprisingly, in a voice as thin as a flute: Are you a good man? I like to think so, but her candor stopped me. No, I said, I'm not. I keep trying, when I remember to, but it keeps getting tougher every year. Like trying to chin yourself with one hand. You can practice off and on all your life, and never make it.

The only moral lesson which is suited for a child--the most important lesson for every time of life--is this: 'Never hurt anybody.

A hermit said, "Do not judge an adulterer if you are chaste or you will break the law of God just as much as he does. For he who said 'Do not commit adultery' also said 'Do not judge.

Having sex multiple times on the first sleepover does not count as more than one "date"…

Truthfulness, uprightness, and honesty are in this connection creative forces, while mendacity, deceitfulness, and dishonesty are destructive forces.

I think most of the things we call evil are not evil at all; it is just that we don't understand those things and so we call them evil. And we fear evil only because we do not understand it. - Gabriel Marez

It is not a good fancy,' said the llama. 'What profit to kill men?' Very little - as I know; but if evil men were not now and then slain it would not be a good world for weaponless dreamers.

You may kill for yourselves, and your mates, and your cubs as they need, and you can; But kill not for pleasure of killing, and SEVEN TIMES NEVER KILL MAN.

Ye may kill for yourselves, and your mates, and your cubs as they need, and ye can; But kill not for pleasure of killing, and seven times never kill Man!

I follow the Law—the Most Excellent Law.

The Law, as quoted, lays down a fair conduct of life, and one not easy to follow.

Well," said Rikki-tikki, and his tail began to fluff up again, "marks or no marks, do you think it is right for you to eat fledglings out of a nest?

What happens when a sin is committed? Usually the sinner flourishes.

Our sins describe us, and our prohibitions describe our sins.

The unexamined life is not worth living'...Socrates made provocative remarks like this famous one as part of his daily practice in Athens in the late fourth century B.C. When he made these statements, he was invariably exhorting his fellow Greeks to avoid falling into the trap of what we might call 'ethical complacency,' the point at which an individual ceases trying to become a better person.