Moral Judgment Quotes

• Self-righteousness is the inevitable fruit of simple moral judgments.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Simple, Self, Fruit

  Reinhold Niebuhr (2015). “Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics: (Library of America #263)”, p.804, Library of America

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• The discussion of the game of marbles seems to have led us into rather deep waters. But in the eyes of children the history of the game of marbles has quite as much importance as the history of religion or of forms of government. It Is a history, moreover, that is magnificently spontaneous; and it was therefore perhaps not entirely useless to seek to throw light on the child's judgment of moral value by a preliminary study of the social behaviour of children amongst themselves.

  Jean Piaget

  Children, Eye, Deep Water

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• To denounce moralizing out of hand is to pronounce a moral judgment.

  H. L. Mencken

  Hands, Morality, Judgment

  H. L. Mencken, Marion Elizabeth Rodgers (2010). “H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series”, Hubsta Ltd

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• I never make moral judgments; I'm not qualified to do so. I am not a censor, a priest, or a politician.

  Federico Fellini

  Moral, Censorship, Judgment

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• If we read the words and attitudes of the past through the pompous "wisdom" of the considered moral judgments of the present, we will find nothing but error.

  Mark Twain

  Attitude, Past, Errors

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• Moral judgment is not life-giving; love that transcends the boundaries of judgment as Jesus' love did, is.

  John Shelby Spong

  Jesus, Giving Love, Justice

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• The atheist is cheating whenever he makes a moral judgment, acting as though it has an objective reference, when his philosophy in fact precludes it.

  William A. Dembski

  Cheating, Atheist, Philosophy

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• I'm very interested in why we do good things, or bad things, and where moral judgments come from.

  Paul Bloom

  Moral, Judgment, Good Things

  "Paul Bloom: The Trouble With Empathy". Interview with Allyson Kirkpatrick, www.guernicamag.com. February 1, 2016.

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• The law that will work is merely the summing up in legislative form of the moral judgment that the community has already reached.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Law, Community, Political

  Woodrow Wilson (1980). “The Papers of Woodrow Wilson”

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• Suspending moral judgment is not the immorality of the novel; it is its morality.

  Milan Kundera

  Morality, Judgment, Novel

  "Testaments Betrayed". Book by Milan Kundera, 1995.

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• Except among those whose education has been in the minimalist style, it is understood that hasty moral judgments about the past are a form of injustice.

  Jacques Barzun

  Past, Judging, Style

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• If you think that you are where you are just because you worked hard, it is easy to become self-righteous and make classist moral judgments about others.

  Charlotte Bunch

  Thinking, Self, Moral

  Charlotte Bunch, Nancy Myron (1974). “Class and feminism: a collection of essays from the Furies”

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• Those indoctrinated by leftist thinking become largely incapable of making accurate moral judgments.

  Dennis Prager

  Thinking, Moral, Judgment

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• If there is no absolute beyond man's ideas, then there is no final appeal to judge between individuals and groups whose moral judgments conflict. We are merely left with conflicting opinions.

  Francis Schaeffer

  Men, Ideas, Judging

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• You can't escape moral judgment through a legal loop hole.

  Michael Josephson

  Moral, Judgment, Holes

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• The primary moral judgment on candidates and their positions is to be made in the light of their concern for protecting human life from conception to natural death.

  Francis George

  Light, Abortion, Moral

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• Why does everyone take for granted that we don't learn to grow arms, but rather, are designed to grow arms? Similarly, we should conclude that in the case of the development of moral systems; there's a biological endowment which in effect requires us to develop a system of moral judgment and a theory of justice, if you like, that in fact has detailed applicability over an enormous range.

  Noam Chomsky

  Justice, Facts, Doe

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• We need to go back to the way it was 30 years ago, when everybody had Grandma and Grandpa, and we were willing to pass moral judgments about right and wrong.

  Steven Tyler

  Grandma, Years, Grandpa

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• I'm not saying that atheists can't act morally or have moral knowledge. But when I ascribe virtue to an atheist, it's as a theist who sees the atheist as conforming to objective moral values. The atheist, by contrast, has no such basis for morality. And yet all moral judgments require a basis for morality, some standard of right and wrong.

  William A. Dembski

  Atheist, Morality, Judgment

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• The change began with John Stuart Mill and the Utopians . When Mill pointed out that economics had no ultimate solution to the problem of distribution , that society might do with the fruits of its toil as it saw fit, he introduced into the mechanical calculus of the market a conflicting calculus of moral judgment.

  Robert Heilbroner

  Might, Saws, Fruit

  "The Worldly Philosophers". Book by Robert Heilbroner, Chapter XI, Beyond the Economic Revolution, p. 307, 1953.

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• That's his definition of mercy. This is the year of the Mercy Jubilee of the pope. I know that he's against abortion, but he talks about Christ's emphasis on mercy instead of his emphasis on judgment. He talks about the lack of Christian charity and the pride that are afloat in our world these days in terms of making moral judgments on other people. That's really it for Willie. He's really a missionary.

  John H Richardson

  Christian, Pride, Years

  Source: classic.esquire.com

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• On reflection, moral judgment in the arts appears rather as a tribute to their power to influence emotion and possibly conduct. And reflecting further on what some critics do today, one sees that a good many have merely shifted the ground of their moralism, transferring their impulse of righteousness to politics and social issues.

  Jacques Barzun

  Art, Reflection, Issues

  Jacques Barzun (1989). “The Culture We Deserve”, p.69, Wesleyan University Press

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• Suspending moral judgment is not the immorality of the novel; it is its morality. The morality that stands against the ineradicable human habit of judging instantly, ceaselessly, and everyone; of judging before, and in the absence of, understanding. From the view­point of the novel's wisdom, that fervid readiness to judge is the most detestable stupidity, the most pernicious evil.

  Milan Kundera

  Views, Evil, Judging

  "Testaments Betrayed". Book by Milan Kundera, 1995.

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• Our moral reasoning is plagued by two illusions. The first illusion can be called the wag-the-dog illusion: We believe that our own moral judgment (the dog) is driven by our own moral reasoning (the tail). The second illusion can be called the wag-theother-dog's-tail illusion: In a moral argument, we expect the successful rebuttal of an opponent's arguments to change the opponent's mind. Such a belief is like thinking that forcing a dog's tail to wag by moving it with your hand will make the dog happy.

  Sam Harris

  Dog, Atheist, Moving

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• Since my moral system rests on my accepted version of the facts, he who denies my moral judgments or my version of the facts, is to me perverse, alien, dangerous. How shall I account for him? The opponent has always to be explained, and the last explanation that we ever look for is that he sees a different set of facts. Such an explanation we avoid, because it saps the very foundation of our own assurance that we have seen life steadily and seen it whole.

  Walter Lippmann

  Looks, Sap, Opponents

  Walter Lippmann (2012). “Public Opinion”, p.69, Courier Corporation

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