Quotes About Morality

PSALM 112    As the majority of mankind expect to prosper by evil deeds, and as they   generally endeavor to enrich themselves by plunder, fraud, and every   species of injustice, the prophet enumerates the blessings of God which   attend those who worship him in purity, in order that we may know that,   in aiming at a life of piety and morality, we shall not lose our   reward.

Shall we, indeed, distinguish between right and wrong by that judgment which has been imparted to us, yet will there be no judge in heaven?

For we always seem to ourselves righteous and upright and wise and holy—this pride is innate in all of us—unless by clear proofs we stand convinced of our own unrighteousness, foulness, folly, and impurity.

For nothing is more dangerous than to live   where the public license of crime prevails; yea, there is no pestilence   so destructive, as that corruption of morals, which is opposed neither   by laws nor judgments, nor any other remedies.

For (such is our innate pride) we always seem to ourselves just, and upright, and wise, and holy, until we are convinced, by clear evidence, of our injustice, vileness, folly, and impurity.

If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house, then in a field,...it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light.

Without the fear of God, men do not even observe justice and charity among themselves.

In forming an estimate of sins, we are often imposed upon by imagining that the more hidden the less heinous they are.

Dickens' hypocrites are the prime beneficiaries of his inventive genius. The heroes and heroines have no imagination. We could scrap all the solemn parts of his novels without impairing his status as a writer. But we could not remove Mrs. Gamp or Pecksniff or Bounderby without maiming him irreparably.

Better to die in the pursuit of civilized values, we believed, than in a flight underground. We were offering a value system couched in the language of science.

The morality taught by Paul and demonstrated by his converts was in stark contrast to the old, permissive morality of the ancient world. It was unconventional: It showed a love of man irrespective of his race, showed forgiveness instead of resentment for wrong, joy instead of grim endurance of adversity or oppression.

Wisdom is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose between the two.

Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose between the two.

The moral bottom had dropped out of my world without changing a mote of sunlight.

If we escape punishment for our vices, why should we complain if we are not rewarded for our virtues?

I have one head that wants to be good, And one that wants to be bad. And always, as soon as I get up, One of my heads is sad.

They were on the side of the angels, even if the angels weren't entirely sure that this was a good thing.

Patriots built Auschwitz. You start believing that "my country wrong or right" shit, and it always ends up at the same place: a pit filled with bones.

Frank tried to look like he was wrestling with his conscience, although he couldn't have found his conscience without a shovel and an exhumation order.

Samuel didn't move. 'What will you do if I climb off the bed?' 'Well I can eat you, or I can drag you down to the depths of Hell, never to seen or heard from again. Depends, really.' 'On what?' 'Lost of things: hygiene, for a start. After tasting that sock, I don't fancy eating any part of you, to be honest, so it'll have to be the depths of Hell for you, I'm afraid.

But don't they say that all is fair in love and war? I heard that somewhere." "'They?' Who are 'they?'" "I don't know. Just people." "That's what the victorious claim, not the defeated; the powerful, not the powerless. 'All is fair.' 'The end justifies the means.' Is that what you believe?

You did it because you wanted to. No one can make you do evil. You had evil inside you, and you indulged it. Men will always indulge it.

He has all the weaknesses that come with a conscience, but none of the strengths.

But the measure of a man was the degree to which he was prepared to inconvenience himself for what was right;