Quotes About Morality

My faith is a choice. My morality is a choice. My sexual orientation however isn't.

Pity . . . is more properly bestowed in cases of involuntary suffering than of crime and offences committed voluntarily and with malice aforethought.

States are doomed when they are unable to distinguish good men from bad.

Justice, contrary to public belief, is not blind. Love is blind, but Justice? Look at any statue, at any depiction. She is blindfolded.

Capital punishment kills immediately, whereas lifetime imprisonment does so slowly. Which executioner is more humane? The one who kills you in a few minutes, or the one who wrests your life from you in the course of many years?

Reason and justice tell me there's more love for humanity in electricity and steam than in chastity and vegetarianism.

I confess I seldom commune with my conscience when I write.

if it comes to a choice between being a good soldier and a good human being -- try to be a good human being".

We stand at an immense fork in the raod. One way is the path of generosity, dignity and a respect for other races and customs; the other leads most certainly to greed, suspicion, hatered and the old, bloody course of violence and waste - and now, God help us, to the very destruction of all the struggles and triumphs of the human race on this earth. My old friends and fellow townsmen: which will it be?

Despicable means used to achieve laudable goals render the goals themselves despicable.

Better a debauched canary than a pious wolf.

Its immoral to steal, but you can take things.

A nice man would feel ashamed even before a dog.

Neither I nor anyone else knows what a standard is. We all recognize a dishonorable act, but have no idea what honor is.

Chrysippus' questions might be useful. He asked: 'Is there good or bad at hand? Is it appropriate to react?' This could be supplemented with a few more, producing a kind of Chrysippan flowchart:

In Buddhism, there are different levels of ethical teachings. The basic rules for good conduct are set out in the precepts. There are five precepts for lay people and rather more for monks. For lay people, the precepts advise refraining from: harming living creatures taking what is not given sexual misconduct false speech taking intoxicants that cause heedlessness

Ah! How neatly tied, in these people, is the umbilical cord of morality! Since they left their mothers they have never sinned, have they? They are apostles, they are the descendants of priests; one can only wonder from what source they draw their indignation, and above all how much they have pocketed to do this, and in any case what it has done for them.

For nothing bestializes a being like the taste for eternal happiness, the search for eternal happiness at any price, and mademoiselle Lucifer is that slut who never wanted to abandon eternal happiness.

The good is the brother of the true; it will help its brother.

si la moral quisiera apoyarse en sanciones legales fomentaría hábitos hipócritas, y si el derecho quisiera sancionar una moral se haría sectario, fomentando el desprecio a sus leyes.

El hombre sólo es rico en hipocresía.

I think there are many more despicable people than I ever imagined.

Yes, this is what good is: to forgive evil. There is no other good.

In that world I knew that good was killing me, but I thought it was evil.