Quotes About Morality

I took a 19th-century Russian novel class in college and have been smitten with Russian literature ever since. Writers like Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Grossman, and Solzhenitsyn tackle the great questions of morality, politics, love, and death.

'To Kill a Mockingbird' is really two stories. One is a coming-of-age tale told from the point of view of Scout Finch, a girl of about nine, and her slightly older brother, Jem. The second story concerns their father, attorney Atticus Finch, who has been appointed to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, falsely accused of raping a white woman.

I love Cillian Murphy's character in 'Peaky Blinders' and Tom Hardy's in 'Taboo' - theses are characters that, as audience members, we follow along with and root for. But our own morality is tested throughout that journey, because these characters ride a thin line between morality and amorality.

Because people are people. Evie fixed her eyes on him. People have complicated lives. Lives that don't necessarily fall so cleanly into black-and-white choices - people are blind, but still well-intended, and see as far as they can.

Undismayed by the ordinary evil of the world, he had the place and the power to make good, to do good. And he did so. He believed one could do right. He had been raised to expect that one could. His was the last generation for whom those givens remained as undisturbed as a silk purse.

it is impossible to become a billionaire without bending the rules. Most of the members of that class run their operations and live their lives in ways that injure our communities. Most are trying to rig the system even further. These are not upstanding citizens. They are parasites and freeloaders—however they try to justify themselves. We do not owe them deference.

Under neither the George W. Bush nor the Obama administrations were conditions attached to the taxpayer-funded assistance banks were handed. No one leveraged the collapse of the banks' moral authority. The U.S. government chose not to use our money to intimidate the banks.

Like a drug, money can make its addicts betray almost anyone.

The Devil may take the reckless, but the good will surely die of boredom. Boredom and frustration.

I do not think money is the root of all evil, but I know it makes an effective fertilizer.

Whatsoever it is morally right for a man to do, it is morally right for a woman to do. She is clothed by her Maker with the same rights, the same duties

There are men who make the world seem populated by good men, those who are intuitive, or have been taught.

Most are pious, but with a peculiar sort of piety. They seem to me to be hiding behind God in disgust at their own meanness.

If there is a God, I'd like to look him in the face knowing I'd died as I lived. In conscious sin.

HIPPOLYTUS: I can't sin against a God I don't believe in.

I can think of no more dangerous a position than to learn to tolerate evil in order to become accustomed to reality.

Why do you think people cheat?," I asked. "Because they're bored? Because they can? Because they're selfish and think they're entitled to anything they want? Because they don't think they'll get caught?

What you're asking me to do is monstrous." "So? Ain't we both monsters?

In a choice between committing an act of grievous heresy-possibly even an act of evil-and losing my brother, I had chosen to commit heresy. And no matter how much it sickened me, I knew I would make the same choice again.

You have to agree Prince Charming is a more appealing character than Jack the Ripper." "But less interesting…

Dead people are bad for business." She gave a half smile. "Except for in your business.

T'aint' no use to look for public sperit 'less you've got some yourself.

SMALL BOY: Where do animals go when they die? SMALL GIRL: All good animals go to heaven, but the bad ones go to the Natural History Museum. — Caption to a drawing by E.H. Shepard, PUNCH, 1929 SIMON

Certain brands of guilt can be inculcated in a secular way but other brands of guilt can only be obtained with reference to the metaphysical.