“From Memorial Day to Labor Day, you may wear white shoes. Not before and not after. As a command, the White Shoe Edict should be clear and simple enough. Do not violate it. In a society in which everything else has become relative, a matter of how it makes you feel, a question between you and your conscience, and an opportunity for you to be really you, this is an absolute.” FeelsShouldMayMatterEnoughOpportunitySimpleWhiteClearConscienceLaborAbsolutesShoesCommandRelativeMemorialMemorial DayLabor DayWhite Shoes Book:Miss Manners' Guide for the Turn-of-the-Millennium Source: Miss Manners' Guide for the Turn-of-the-Millennium
“The fact that both Jews and Christians ignore some of God's or Jesus's commands, but scrupulously obey others, is absolute proof that people pick and choose their morality not on the basis of its divine source, but because it comports with some innate morality that they derived from other sources.” PeopleFactsChristianJesusDivineSourceMoralityPicksBasesAbsolutesJewProofCommandInnate Author:Jerry A. Coyne
“The most successful prostitutes are invisible, because the sign of a prostitute's success is her absolute blending with the environment. She's so shrewd, she never becomes visible. She never gets in trouble. She has command of her life, and her clients.” SuccessfulEnvironmentTroubleAbsolutesInvisibleCommandVisibleClients Author:Camille Paglia
“One man saying that everything is wrong can command coast-to-coast attention in living color, a power not given to an absolute monarch a century ago.” MenGivenAttentionCenturyColorAbsolutesCommandOne ManCoastMonarchsLiving Color Author:Walter Wriston
“Our search for such [moral] principles can start with . . . the unconditional imperative to acknowledge every person as a person. If we ask for the contents given by this absolute, we find, first, something negative-the command not to treat a person as a thing. This seems little, but it is much. It is the core of the principle of justice.” IfsFirstsLittlesPersonsSeemsAsksGivenJusticeMoralPrinciplesNegativeTreatsAbsolutesCoreCommandAcknowledgeUnconditionalImperativesMoral PrinciplesCommand Not Author:Paul Tillich
“The moral absolutes rest upon God's character. The moral commands He has given to men are an expression of His character. Men as created in His image are to live by choice on the basis of what God is. The standards of morality are determined by what conforms to His character, while those things which do not conform are immoral.” MenCharacterChoicesGivenMoralExpressionMoralityStandardsBasesAbsolutesDeterminedCommandLive ByConformImmoral Author:Francis Schaeffer
“Even if the being is not entirely purified, varieties of inspirations and powers may come down from above but this may lead to serious errors. Inspirations from above mixing with the impurities from below get all muddled up and the sadhak takes this for an absolute command. Many a sadhak has thus fallen into danger. Therefore, one must particularly lay stress on the purification of the being.” IfsMayInspirationDangerSeriousStressAbsolutesLaysErrorsCommandVarietyFallenMixingPurificationImpurity Author:Sri Aurobindo
“The scientific value of truth is not, however, ultimate or absolute. It rests partly on practical, partly on aesthetic interests. As our ideas are gradually brought into conformity with the facts by the painful process of selection,-for intuition runs equally into truth and into error, and can settle nothing if not controlled by experience,-we gain vastly in our command over our environment. This is the fundamental value of natural science” IfsIdeasFactsRunningScienceValuesProcessInterestNaturalEnvironmentTruth IsGainsUltimateAbsolutesFundamentalsErrorsPainfulIntuitionPracticalsCommandSettlingConformityControlledAestheticSelectionOur EnvironmentNatural Science Book:The Sense of Beauty Source: The Sense of Beauty