Morality Quotes - Page 24

• In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.

  Charles Dickens

  Inspirational, Expectations, Cowardice

  Charles Dickens (1881). “Great Expectations”, p.61

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• Science is the search for the truth--it is not a game in which one tries to beat his opponent, to do harm to others. We need to have the spirit of science in international affairs, to make the conduct of international affairs the effort to find the right solution, the just solution of international problems, and not an effort by each nation to get the better of other nations, to do harm to them when it is possible. I believe in morality, in justice, in humanitarianism.

  Linus Pauling

  Truth, Believe, Games

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• You're trying to be tricky. What's morality?" "It's the difference between what's right and what you can rationalize." "Must be a human thing." "Exactly.

  Christopher Moore

  Differences, Trying, Tricky

  Christopher Moore (2009). “Practical Demonkeeping”, p.93, Zondervan

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• Christian morality (so called) has all the characters of a reaction; it is, in great part, a protest against Paganism. Its ideal is negative rather than positive; passive rather than action; innocence rather than Nobleness; Abstinence from Evil, rather than energetic Pursuit of Good: in its precepts (as has been well said) "thou shalt not" predominates unduly over "thou shalt.

  John Stuart Mill

  Christian, Character, Evil

  "On Liberty". Philosophical work by John Stuart Mill (ch. II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion), 1859.

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• The same relation exists between merchant and pirate, who for a long period are one and the same person: where the one function appears to them inadvisable, they exercise the other.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Long, Pirate, Today

  "Human, All Too Human".

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• Those moralists, on the other hand, who, following in the footsteps of Socrates, offer the individual a morality of self-control and temperance as a means to his own advantage, as his personal key to happiness, are the exceptions.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Mean, Keys, Self

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2006). “Nietzsche: 'On the Genealogy of Morality' and Other Writings Student Edition”, p.134, Cambridge University Press

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• It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere... Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

  Albert Einstein

  Death, Religious, Atheist

  "Religion and Science", New York Times Magazine, November 9, 1930.

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• Whenever governments adopt a moral tone - as opposed to an ethical one - you know something is wrong.

  John Ralston Saul

  Government, Tone, Ethical

  John Ralston Saul (2012). “The Unconscious Civilization”, p.108, Simon and Schuster

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• And they drank heavily, partied with great enthusiasm, and relished the drug culture; they moved in and out and slept around, and this was okay because they defined their own morality. They were fighting for the Mexicans and the redwoods, dammit! They had to be good people!

  John Grisham

  Fighting, People, Drug

  John Grisham (2000). “The Brethren”, Doubleday Books

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• One of them is knowing the difference between Morality and Wisdom. Morality is temporary, Wisdom is permanent… Ho ho. Take that one to bed with you tonight.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Differences, Knowing, Bed

  Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the F”, p.8, Simon and Schuster

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• I was always treated as if I had insisted on being born, in opposition to the dictates of reason, religion, and morality, and against the dissuadinig arguments of my best friends.

  Charles Dickens

  Funny, Humorous, Expectations

  1860-1 Pip. Great Expectations, ch.4.

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• To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Orthodoxy, Action, Vengeance

  "A short history of England". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1917.

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• You don't read Gatsby, I said, to learn whether adultery is good or bad but to learn about how complicated issues such as adultery and fidelity and marriage are. A great novel heightens your senses and sensitivity to the complexities of life and of individuals, and prevents you from the self-righteousness that sees morality in fixed formulas about good and evil.

  Azar Nafisi

  Self, Issues, Evil

  Azar Nafisi (2003). “Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books”, p.133, Random House

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• Young people are moving away from feeling guilty about sleeping with somebody to feeling guilty if they are *not* sleeping with someone.

  Margaret Mead

  Sex, Moving, Sleep

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• Fundamental accuracy of statement is the ONE sole morality of writing.

  Ezra Pound

  Writing, Fundamentals, Crafts

  Ezra Pound, Forrest Read (1967). “Pound/Joyce; the Letters of Ezra Pound to James Joyce: With Pound's Essays on Joyce”, p.249, New Directions Publishing

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• Never presume yours is a better morality.

  Graham Greene

  Graham Greene (1996). “Travels with My Aunt”, p.39, Oberon Books

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• Devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality; there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.

  Ayn Rand

  Philosophy, Responsibility, Men

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.410, Penguin

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• To pretend that civilization can exist without destroying its own landbase and the landbases and cultures of others is to be entirely ignorant of history, biology, thermodynamics, morality, and self-preservation.

  Derrick Jensen

  Self, Civilization, Ignorant

  Derrick Jensen (2006). “Endgame”, p.149, Seven Stories Press

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• Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.

  Spencer Johnson

  Truth, Honesty, Integrity

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• The world is ruled by neither justice nor morality; crime is not punished nor virtue rewarded, one is forgotten as quickly as the other. The world is ruled by power and power is obtained with money. To work is senseless, because money cannot be obtained through work, but through exploitation of others. And if we cannot exploit as much as we wish, at least let us work as little as we can. Moral duty? We believe neither in the morality of man nor in the morality of systems. [p. 168]

  Tadeusz Borowski

  Believe, Men, Justice

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• Morality, it could be argued, represents the way that people would like the world to work, wheareas economics represents how it actually does work.

  Steven Levitt

  People, Doe, World

  Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner (2006). “Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything”, p.18, Penguin UK

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• One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion. So now people assume that religion and morality have a necessary connection. But the basis of morality is really very simple and doesn't require religion at all.

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Simple, People, Tragedy

  "God, science, and delusion". "Free Inquiry" Interview with Matt Cherry, March 22, 1999.

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• Seven Deadly Sins Wealth without work Pleasure without conscience Science without humanity Knowledge without character Politics without principle Commerce without morality Worship without sacrifice.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Inspirational, Happiness, Success

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• Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism.

  Carl Sagan

  Suicidal, Science, Long

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium”, p.176, Ballantine Books

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• Human passions unbridled by morality and religion...would break the stronges cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.

  John Adams

  Passion, Whales, Constitution

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