Common Decency Quotes

…there's no question of heroism in all this. It's a matter of common decency. That's an idea which may make some people smile, but the only means of fighting a plague is - common decency.

Albert Camus

Mean, Fighting, Ideas

Albert Camus (1960). “The plague: translated from the French”

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There is onslaught is the accelerating momentum of technologies and instrumental mentalities that are exterminating spontaneity, undermining love and common decency. It's a thief of time and includes all the palpable and subtle violations of body, mind, and spirit done in the name of science, government, enterprise, progress, and profit.

Stephanie Mills

Technology, Government, Names

Source: www.counterpunch.org

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I wish that people who are conventionally supposed to love each other would say to each other, when they fight, "Please - a little less love, and a little more common decency."

Kurt Vonnegut

Life, Breakup, Fighting

Kurt Vonnegut (2010). “Slapstick or Lonesome No More”, p.2, Random House

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Please — a little less love, and a little more common decency.

Kurt Vonnegut

Littles, Slapstick, Please

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Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.

Gertrude Stein

Inspirational, Knowledge, Technology

1959 'Reflection on the Atomic Bomb', collected in Robert A Goodwin (ed) Readings in World Politics (1959).

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It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.

H. L. Mencken

Freedom, Honesty, Hate

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School days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence.

H. L. Mencken

Education, Believe, Learning

H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.308, Vintage

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School days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances, brutal violations of common sense and common decency. It doesn't take a reasonably bright boy long to discover that most of what is rammed into him is nonsense, and that no one really cares very much whether he learns it or not.

H. L. Mencken

Believe, School, Boys

H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.308, Vintage

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On matters of race, on matters of decency, baseball should lead the way.

A. Bartlett Giamatti

Baseball, Race, Matter

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Common decency is a core part of who people are.

E. J. Dionne

People, Core, Common

Source: www.pbs.org

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Just what is it that academics have to fear if they stand up for common decency, instead of letting campus barbarians run amok?

Thomas Sowell

Running, Barbarians, Campus

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Rome tolerated every abominable practice, embraced every foul idea in the name of freedom and the rights of the common man. Citizens no longer carried on deviant behavior in private, but pridefully displayed it in public. It was those with moral values who could no longer freely walk in a public park without having to witness a revolting display. What happened to the public censors who protected the majority of citizenry from moral decadence? Did freedom have to mean abolishing common decency? Did freedom mean anyone could do anything they wanted anytime they wanted, without consequences?

Francine Rivers

Mean, Men, Rights

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Common decency demands that [NCAA athletes] should be paid, but the only way it will happen is the same way workers got paid throughout American history, through a strong union.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Strong, Athlete, Ncaa

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This is why I say that the individual's most potent weapon is a stubborn belief in the triumph of common decency.

Paul Rusesabagina

Triumph, Stubborn, Weapons

Paul Rusesabagina (2009). “An Ordinary Man: The True Story Behind Hotel Rwanda”, p.130, Bloomsbury Publishing

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I believe that poverty is often the result of inappropriate behavior - out-of-wedlock births, dropping out of school, crime and drugs - which should not be rewarded. But often it isn't, and common decency requires that we take care of the least of these.

Joe Klein

Believe, School, Inappropriate Behavior

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All right, so there he is, our representative to the world, Mr. Western Civilization, in codpiece and pantyhose up there on the boards, firing away at the rapt groundlings with his blank verses, not less of a word-slinger and spellbinder than the Bard himself and therefore not to be considered too curiously on such matters as relevance, coherence, consistency, propriety, sanity, common decency.

Marvin Mudrick

Civilization, Consistency, Boards

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Most asylum seekers do get permanent visas, so the earlier they receive the appropriate help, the faster they will become part of the community. They'll get jobs and start paying taxes too. They will see Australia as a nation with a sense of care and concern. That's so important for a cohesive society. It helps build a sense of belonging. And in terms of common decency, it's what should be happening... For God's sake, this is Australia, people should be treated with decency and humanity.

Malcolm Fraser

Jobs, Australia, People

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Of government, at least in democratic states, it may be said briefly that it is an agency engaged wholesale, and as a matter of solemn duty, in the performance of acts which all self-respecting individuals refrain from as a matter of common decency.

H. L. Mencken

Freedom, Agency, Government

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The worst enemy of life, freedom and the common decencies is total anarchy; their second worst enemy is total efficiency.

Aldous Huxley

Worst Enemy, Literature, Anarchy

Aldous Huxley (1956). “Adonis and the alphabet: and other essays”

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