Justification Quotes - Page 3

• Moral justification is a powerful disengagement mechanism. Destructive conduct is made personally and socially acceptable by portraying it in the service of moral ends. This is why most appeals against violent means usually fall on deaf ears.

  Albert Bandura

  Powerful, Fall, Mean

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• Being offended by freedom of speech should never be regarded as a justification for violence.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Freedom Of Speech, Violence, Should

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• But then Mason touches my neck, to the spot on it where the cut from that night has since healed, and I pull away. He was right, after all; it didn't leave a scar, though part of me wishes it had. At least I'd have some evidence, some justification of this permanence. Stains are even worse when you're the only one who can see them.

  Gayle Forman

  Cutting, Night, Wish

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• aren't they the very reason I have to try to fight? Because what has been done to them is so wrong, so beyond justification, so evil that there is no choice? Because no one has the right to treat them as they have been treated?

  Suzanne Collins

  Fighting, Evil, Choices

  Suzanne Collins (2010). “Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games)”, p.123, Scholastic Inc.

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• Eroticism has its own moral justification because it says that pleasure is enough for me; it is a statement of the individual's sovereignty.

  Mario Vargas Llosa

  Moral, Enough, Pleasure

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• Love appears and says: "You think you're heading towards a specific point, but the whole justification for the goal's existence lies in your love for it. Rest a little,but as soon as you can, get up and carry on. Because ever since your goal found out that you were traveling toward it, it has been running to meet you.

  Paulo Coelho

  Running, Lying, Thinking

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• Common experience shows how much rarer is moral courage than physical bravery. A thousand men will march to the mouth of the cannon where one man will dare espouse an unpopular cause . . . True courage and manhood come from the consciousness of the right attitude toward the world, the faith in one's purpose, and the sufficiency of one's own approval as a justification for one's own acts.

  Clarence Darrow

  Peace, Attitude, Men

  Clarence Darrow, S. T. Joshi (2005). “Closing Arguments: Clarence Darrow on Religion, Law, and Society”, p.89, Ohio University Press

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• The justification of majority rule in politics is not to be found in its ethical superiority.

  Walter Lippmann

  Majority Rule, Politics, Ethical

  Walter Lippmann (2011). “The Phantom Public”, p.48, Transaction Publishers

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• Let me say this as clearly as I can: No matter how sharp a grievance or how deep a hurt, there is no justification for killing innocents.

  William J. Clinton

  Hurt, Patriotic, Positive Energy

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• The Dancer believes that his art has something to say which cannot be expressed in words or in any other way than by dancing... there are times when the simple dignity of movement can fulfill the function of a volume of words. There are movements which impinge upon the nerves with a strength that is incomparable, for movement has power to stir the senses and emotions, unique in itself. This is the dancer's justification for being, and his reason for searching further for deeper aspects of his art.

  Doris Humphrey

  Dance, Art, Believe

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• It is psychologically very hard to go through life without the justification, and the hope, provided by religion.

  Umberto Eco

  Hard

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• The diversity of mankind is a basic postulate of our knowledge of human beings. But if mankind is diverse and individuated, then how can anyone propose equality as an ideal? Every year, scholars hold Conferences on Equality and call for greater equality, and no one challenges the basic tenet. But what justification can equality find in the nature of man? If each individual is unique, how else can he be made 'equal' to others than by destroying most of what is human in him and reducing human society to the mindless uniformity of the ant heap?

  Murray Rothbard

  Unique, Men, Years

  Murray N. Rothbard (2009). “Man, Economy, and State, Scholar's Edition”, p.1309, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• On the justification for the war, it wasn't related to finding any particular weapon of mass destruction.

  Stephen Harper

  War, Mass Destruction, Weapons

  "Maclean's Magazine", August, 25, 2003.

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• Most cats do not approach humans recklessly. The possibility of concealed weapons, clods or sticks, tend to make them reserved. Homeless cats in particular-with some justification, unfortunately-consider humans their natural enemies. Much ceremony must be observed, and a number of diplomatic feelers put out, before establishing a state of truce.

  Lloyd Alexander

  Cat, Animal, Numbers

  Lloyd Alexander (1956). “My Five Tigers”

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• If we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Wish, Liberty, Essentials

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by F.A. Hayek, Chap. 6: "Equality, Value and Merit," Routledge (p. 77), 1960.

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• I want to say that nobody accuses their parents of abusing them without justification to do that. I didn't just make it up. A lot of things were true and abusive and horrible things that happened to me that my father did.

  Roseanne Barr

  Father, Parent, Want

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• In our time there are many artists who do something because it is new; they see their value and their justification in this newness. They are deceiving themselves; novelty is seldom the essential. This has to do with one thing only; making a subject better from its intrinsic nature.

  Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

  Art, Essentials, Novelty

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• I guess as long as people think of me for different ages, I'll trust their opinion. I remember noticing one year that Michelle Monaghan played 34 and 19, so I've kind of clung to that as my justification that I can be Jake Gyllenhaal's wife and a freshman in college in the same year.

  Anna Kendrick

  College, Thinking, Years

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• The justification and the purpose of freedom of speech is not to indulge those who want to speak their minds. It is to prevent error and discover truth. There may be other ways of detecting error and discovering truth than that of free discussion, but so far we have not found them.

  Henry Steele Commager

  Errors, Freedom Of Speech, Mind

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• To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good... Ideology - that is what gives devildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others' eyes, so that he won't hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Determination, Believe, Eye

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• The justifications of men who kill should always be heard with skepticism, said the monster.

  Patrick Ness

  Men, Monsters, Should

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• I wish I had fair justification for not being as informed as I should be, but I don't.

  Joaquin Phoenix

  Wish, Should, Fairs

  "You must be Joaquin" by Sanjiv Bhattacharya, www.theguardian.com. July 19, 2003.

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• It was very difficult to go farther than that in the arguments with my father because he would always have a story or a justification to tell you, which I never considered valid because there is not an excuse for violence.

  Juan Pablo Escobar

  Father, Stories, Violence

  Source: harvardpolitics.com

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• They have this social justification for every nasty thing they do!

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Nasty, Social

  Fyodor Dostoevsky (2015). “The Brothers Karamazov”, p.902, First Avenue Editions

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• But why must everything have a practical application? I'd been such a diligent soldier for years - working, producing, never missing a deadline, taking care of my loved ones, my gums and my credit record, voting, etc. Is this lifetime supposed to be only about duty? In this dark period of loss, did I need any justification for learning Italian other than that it was the only thing I could imagine bringing me any pleasure right now?

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Loss, Dark, Italian

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.24, Bloomsbury Publishing

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