“Was the excellence of Socrates or of Shakespeare normal? Was it not rather abnormal, extraordinary? It is, I think, obvious in the first place, that not all that is good is normal; that, on the contrary, the abnormal is often better than the normal...” PhilosophyGreatnessEthicsIndividualityUniquenessMoral Philosophy Book:Principia Ethica Source: Principia Ethica
“Good, then, is indefinable....” PhilosophyMoralityGoodnessEthicsMoral Philosophy Book:Principia Ethica Source: Principia Ethica
“If indeed good were a feeling....then it would exist in time. But that is why to call it so is to commit the naturalistic fallacy. It will always remain pertinent to ask, whether the feeling itself is good; and if do, then good cannot itself be identical with any feeling.” PhilosophyGoodnessEthicsMoral Philosophy Book:Principia Ethica Source: Principia Ethica
“We must not, therefore, be frightened by the assertion that a thing is natural into the admission that it is good; good does not, by definition, mean anything that is natural; and it is therefore always an open question whether anything that is natural is good.” PhilosophyMoralityGoodnessEthicsToleranceMoral Philosophy Book:Principia Ethica Source: Principia Ethica
“If i am asked 'what is good? my answer is that good is good, and that is the end of the matter. Or if I am asked 'How is good to be defined?' my answer is that it cannot be defined, and that is all I have to say about it” PhilosophyMoralityGoodnessEthicsMoral Philosophy Book:Principia Ethica Source: Principia Ethica
“...if good is defined as something else, it is then impossible either to prove that any other definition is wrong or even to deny such definition.” PhilosophyMoralityGoodnessEthicsMoral Philosophy Book:Principia Ethica Source: Principia Ethica