Moral Life Quotes

• Don't be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Cheating, Ethics And Morals

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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

  Inspirational, Cheating, Integrity

  Henry David Thoreau, Barry Andrews (2005). “True Harvest: Readings from Henry David Thoreau for Every Day of the Year”, p.83, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

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• The key to living a moral life is this: Do nothing in private that you would be ashamed to discuss openly with your mother.

  J. P. Morgan

  Mother, Keys, Would Be

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• You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.

  David Lloyd George

  Graduation, Commitment, Two

  "Design for Power : The Struggle for the World". Book by Frederick Lewis Schuman, 1941.

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• If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover these precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Spiritual, Reality, African American

  "Rediscovering Lost Values". Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Sermon at Detroit's Second Baptist Church, kinginstitute.stanford.edu. February 28, 1954.

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• The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

  H. L. Mencken

  Regret, Character, Men

  Prejudices, Fourth Series ch. 11 (1924)

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• Man is only a moral being because he lives in society, since morality consists in solidarity with the group, and varies according to that solidarity. Cause all social life to vanish, and moral life would vanish at the same time, having no object to cling to.

  Emile Durkheim

  Men, Groups, Causes

  Emile Durkheim (2014). “The Division of Labor in Society”, p.311, Simon and Schuster

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• You cannot live a political life, you cannot live a moral life if you're not willing to open your eyes and see the world more clearly. See some of the injustice that's going on. Try to make yourself aware of what's happening in the world. And when you are aware, you have a responsibility to act.

  Bill Ayers

  Eye, Responsibility, Political

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• The fact which interests us most is the life of the naturalist. The purest science is still biographical. Nothing will dignify and elevate science while it is sundered so wholly from the moral life of its devotee.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Science, Biographies, Facts

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “The Illustrated "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"”, p.362, Princeton University Press

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• There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion.

  Will Durant

  Religion, Atheism, Example

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (2012). “The Lessons of History”, p.38, Simon and Schuster

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• The Christian faith, simply stated, reminds us that our fundamental problem is not moral; rather, our fundamental problem is spiritual. It is not just that we are immoral, but that a moral life alone cannot bridge what separates us from God. Herein lies the cardinal difference between the moralizing religions and Jesus' offer to us. Jesus does not offer to make bad people good but to make dead people alive.

  Ravi Zacharias

  Christian, Spiritual, Jesus

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• The formation of character in young people is educationally a different task from, and a prior task to, the discussion of the great, difficult, ethical controversies of the day. First things first. And planting the ideas of virtue, of good traits in the young, comes first. In the moral life, as in life itself, we take one step at a time. Every field has its complexities and controversies. And so does ethics. And every field has its basics. So too with values.

  William Bennett

  Character, Ideas, People

  "The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories". Book edited by William Bennett, reason.com. 1993.

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• To try to reform all the power structures at once would leave us with no power structure to use in our project. In any case, we will be able to see that absolute moral renewal could be attempted only by an absolute power and that a tyrannous force such as this must destroy the whole moral life of man, not renew it.

  Michael Polanyi

  Men, Trying, Reform

  Michael Polanyi, Harry Prosch (2008). “Meaning”, p.214, University of Chicago Press

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• The times are chaotic. For me, I would hope that people look at [Angel] and gain strength by it. With everything that I do, I hope that they see people struggling to live decent, moral lives in a completely chaotic world. They see how hard it is, how often they fail, and how they get up and keep trying. That, to me, is the most important message I'm ever going to tell.

  Joss Whedon

  Struggle, Angel, People

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• While so much of our economic life is thriving, too much of our moral life is still stagnating. As a people, we need to reaffirm our faith.

  Joe Lieberman

  People, Scary, Needs

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• The essential thing, the ultimate goal of politics and thought, is a bigger life for the individual. A bigger life – that remains the main objective…to increase our divine attributes to have moral life.

  Roberto Unger

  Goal, Essentials, Moral

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• What more does man want to know than that the hand or power that made these things is divine, is omnipotent? Let him believe this with the force it is impossible to repel, if he permits his reason to act, and his rule of moral life will follow of course.

  Thomas Paine

  Believe, Men, Hands

  Thomas Paine (2015). “The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies”, p.233, Ravenio Books

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• Our lives depend on recognizing that human cloning, like all forms of 'playing God,' is a moral, life-promoting endeavor.

  Alex Epstein

  Cloning, Moral, Form

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• In the scenes of moral life the soul is at once actor and spectator.

  Joseph Marie, baron de Gerando

  Soul, Actors, Moral

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• Business is the real test of the moral life.

  Ted Malloch

  Real, Tests, Moral

  "Doing Virtuous Business: The Remarkable Success of Spiritual Enterprise". Book by Ted Malloch, 2011.

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• Men live a moral life, either from regard to the Diving Being, or from regard to the opinion of the people in the world; and when a moral life is practised out of regard to the Divine Being, it is a spiritual life. Both appear alike in their outward form; but in their inward, they are completely different. The one saves a man, but the other does not; for he that leads a moral life out of regard to the Divine Being is led by him, but he who does so from regard to the opinion of people in the world is led by himself.

  Emanuel Swedenborg

  Good Night, Spiritual, Men

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• Enthusiasm is always connected with the senses, whatever be the object that excites it. The true strength of virtue is serenity of mind, combined with a deliberate and steadfast determination to execute her laws. That is the healthful condition of the moral life; on the other hand, enthusiasm, even when excited by representations of goodness, is a brilliant but feverish glow which leaves only exhaustion and languor behind.

  Immanuel Kant

  Determination, Law, Hands

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• Style is, above all, a system of forms with a quality and a meaningful expression through which the personality of the artist andthe broad outlook of a group are visible,... communicating and fixing certain values of religious, social, and moral life through the emotional suggestiveness of forms. It is, besides, a common ground against which innovations and individuality of particular works may be measured.

  Meyer Schapiro

  Meaningful, Religious, Art

  Meyer Schapiro (1994). “Theory and Philosophy of Art: Style, Artist, and Society”

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• Does history warrant the conclusion that religion is necessary to morality - that a natural ethic is too weak to withstand the savagery that lurks under civilization and emerges in our dreams, crimes and wars? ... There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion.

  Will Durant

  Dream, War, Civilization

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (2012). “The Lessons of History”, p.38, Simon and Schuster

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• What matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us. And if the tradition of the virtues was able to survive the horrors of the last dark ages, we are not entirely without ground for hope. This time however the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for quite some time.

  Alasdair MacIntyre

  Dark, What Matters, Community

  Alasdair MacIntyre (1981). “After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory”, Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd

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