MORALITY QUOTES III

quotations about morality

The word morality, if we met it in the Bible, would surprise us as much as the word telephone or motor car.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

preface, Fanny's First Play

Tags: George Bernard Shaw


Must someone, some unseen thing, declare what is right for it to be right? I believe that my own morality -- which answers only to my heart -- is more sure and true than the morality of those who do right only because they fear retribution.

BRANDON SANDERSON

The Way of Kings


Modern morality and manners suppress all natural instincts, keep people ignorant of the facts of nature and make them fighting drunk on bogey tales.

ALEISTER CROWLEY

The Confessions of Aleister Crowley

Tags: Aleister Crowley


Morality is the congruity and proportion that is between the actions of rational beings, and the objects of those actions.

BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE

Moral and Religious Aphorisms

Tags: Benjamin Whichcote


Moral argument tries to appeal to a capacity for impartial motivation which is supposed to be present in all of us. Unfortunately it may be deeply buried, and in some cases it may not be present at all. In any case it has to compete with powerful selfish motives, and other personal motives that may not be so selfish, in its bid for control of our behavior. The difficulty of justifying morality is not that there is only one human motive, but that there are so many.

THOMAS NAGEL

What Does It All Mean?


Our world hinges on moral foundations. God has made it so. God has made the universe to be based on a moral law. So long as man disobeys it he is revolting against God. That's what we need in the world today: people who will stand for right and goodness. It's not enough to know the intricacies of zoology and biology, but we must know the intricacies of law. It is not enough to know that two and two makes four, but we've got to know somehow that it's right to be honest and just with our brothers. It's not enough to know all about our philosophical and mathematical disciplines, but we've got to know the simple disciplines of being honest and loving and just with all humanity. If we don't learn it, we will destroy ourselves by the misuse of our own powers.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

sermon delivered at Detroit's Second Baptist Church, February 28, 1954

Tags: Martin Luther King, Jr.


Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last.

CHARLOTTE BRONTË

Jane Eyre

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The truth is that people who pull triggers are ultimately responsible, whether they're following orders or not. An army of people making individual moral choices may be inefficient, but an army of people ignoring their morality is horrifying.

JOEL STEIN

Los Angeles Times, January 24, 2006

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Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

letter to Mr. B., March 27, 1848

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The highest stage in moral culture at which we can arrive, is when we recognise that we ought to control our thoughts.

CHARLES DARWIN

The Descent of Man

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A man that puts himself on the ground of moral principle, if the whole world be against him, is mightier than all of them.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

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Ethics and I had crossed paths recently, and I'm not sure that I fell on the right side of the morality line.

S. C. STEPHENS

Effortless


Morality is an utterly meaningless term unless defined as the good one does to others, the fulfilling of one's function in the sociopolitical whole.

URSULA K. LE GUIN

The Lathe of Heaven

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"Immoral" is the judgment of the stalled ox on the gamboling lamb.

AMBROSE BIERCE

"Epigrams of a Cynic"

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Morality hides and covers, but never mortifies, nor cures the Corruptions of Nature; and mortified they must be, or you cannot be saved.

JOHN FLAVEL

The Whole Works of the Reverend Mr. John Flavel


Our moral faculties must be placed highest, else they can no more flourish than could a plant growing under the shade and drip of trees.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

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Yet one must also recognize that morality is based on ideas and that all ideas are dangerous--dangerous because ideas can only lead to action and where the action leads no man can say.

JAMES BALDWIN

Notes of a Native Son

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Moral progress is a process of isolation; the mountain tops are lonely.

AUSTIN O'MALLEY

Keystones of Thought

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Every day we make our way through a moral forest, along pathways ever branching. Often we get lost. When the array of paths before us is so perplexing that we can't make a choice, or won't, we can hope that we will be given a sign to guide us. A reliance on signs, however, can lead to the evasion of all moral obligations, and thus earn a terrible judgment.

DEAN KOONTZ

Forever Odd

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Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.

WILLIAM HAZLITT

Characteristics

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