Quotes About Morality

Qué es nuestra historia —desde el asesinato de Caín hasta los hornos de gas y la incineración nuclear—, sino la crónica de lo inhumano?

Si no se puede enseñar el amor, ¿se puede enseñar el odio?

Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.

Those who based decisions on principle, not some snapshot of public opinion, were often vindicated over time.

Be not glad at the misfortune of another, though he may be your enemy.

if to please the people,we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The rest is in the hands of God.

I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy.

Unhappy it is, though, to reflect that a brother's sword has been sheathed in a brother's breast and that the once-happy plains of America are either to be drenched with blood or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative! But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?

Wherein you reprove another be unblameable yourself, for example is more prevalent than precepts.

On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind. Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President, author, scientist, architect, educator, and diplomat

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? Epicurus

Saya harap, saya selalu memiliki cukup keteguhan dan cukup kebajikan untuk memelihara gelar yang saya anggap paling mengagumkan, yaitu watak sebagai orang jujur.

Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

Eskimo: If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell? Priest: No, not if you did not know. Eskimo: Then why did you tell me? Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

89th: Speak not evil of the absent, for it is unjust.

Speak not evil of the absent, for it is unjust.

Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles.

This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it. John Adams, U.S. President

Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner] ... I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause... for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country.

Labor to keep alive in your breaks that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.

All attempts at law, all religion, all ethical norms might be nothing more than attempts by the weak to restrain the strong. Then, within the law, arise the new strong, who subvert the law for their own ends of power and family interest, leaving the old strong outside their circle to pursue the waiting possibilities which they call crime. The weak, the cowardly, the decent ones, live between these groups.

To others, the universe seems decent because decent people have welded eyes. That is why they fear lewdness. They are never frightened by the crowing of a rooster or when strolling under a starry heaven. In general, people savor the pleasures of the flesh only on the condition that they may be insipid.

If literature stays away from evil, it rapidly becomes boring.

Literature is communication. Communication requires loyalty. A rigorous morality results from complicity in the knowledge of Evil, which is the basis of intense communication.