Best Moral Life Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Pope Alexander smiled. He seemed more amused with the story than horrified. "The Baglioni are true believers," he said. "They believe in paradise. Such a great gift. How otherwise can man bear this moral life? Unfortunately, such a belief also gives evil men the courage to commit great crimes in the name of good and God.”

God Evil Good Believer Gift Paradise Moral Life Borgias Mario Puzo

Book:The Family

Source: The Family

“There may be mistakes in the choice of means to attain an end. But success or failure also involves much that lies beyond our power. We are not responsible for the inevitable, nor for a knowledge that is beyond our reach. Solely the ends, honestly chosen, and consistently sought, determine the moral quality of a life.”

Success Failure Moral Life

Book:The Great Mistake

Source: The Great Mistake

“Truth from the Holy Bible is to produce accurate precepts for sound minds to know how to live a moral upright life and to survive together in peace.”

Truth Holy Bible Moral Life Sound Minds Survive Together In Peace

Author:Joan Jessalyn Cox

“The recasting of the Origin Myth as a story about the perils of disobedience precipitated a kind of decoupling of scripture from religious experience: when religious authorities began to insist on the literal truth of scripture, they were effectively promoting a kind of secular rationalism that states that one does not need to have a religious experience of any kind to live a moral life: all one has to do is declare one’s faith in scripture, in the doctrine of Jesus’ divinity and such, and accept the authority of the Holy Catholic Church as God’s representative on Earth.”

Truth Faith Authority Scripture Disobedience Catholic Church Rationalism Religious Experience Moral Life Origin Myth

Book:Entheogens, Society and Law: The Politics of Consciousness, Autonomy and Responsibility

Source: Entheogens, Society and Law: The Politics of Consciousness, Autonomy and Responsibility

“If you expound the teaching of the Logos from the standpoint of the moral life, using materialistic words and examples which correspond to the capacity of your hearers, you make the Logos flesh. Conversely, if you elucidate mystical theology by means of the higher forms of contemplation you make the Logos spirit.”

Ifs Mean Christian Form Spirit Moral Teaching Example Higher Capacity Flesh Theology Contemplation Orthodox Mystical Standpoint Materialistic Logos Moral Life

Author:Maximus the Confessor

“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.”

Ifs World Trying Eye Political Responsibility Moral Willing Happenings Injustice Political Life Moral Life

Author:Bill Ayers

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

“The idea of duty, that recognition of something to be lived for beyond the mere satisfaction of self, is to the moral life what the addition of a great central ganglion is to animal life. No man can begin to mould himself on a faith or an idea without rising to a higher order of experience: a principle of subordination, of self-mastery, has been introduced into his nature; he is no longer a mere bundle of impressions, desires, and impulses.”

Source: Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)

“As a child I was taught that to tell the truth was often painful. As an adult I have learned that not to tell the truth is more painful, and that the fear of telling the truth - whatever the truth may be - that fear is the most painful sensation of a moral life.”

May Children Moral Taught Truth Is Adults Painful Telling The Truth Sensations I Have Learned Moral Life

Book:Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays

Source: Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays

“We can act as if there were a God; feel as if we were free; consider Nature as if she were full of special designs; lay plans as if we were to be immortal; and we find then that these words do make a genuine difference in our moral life.”

Ifs Feels Differences Moral Plans Special Design Lays Genuine Immortal Moral Life

Author:William James

“We hold from God the gift which includes all others. This gift is life - physical, intellectual, and moral life.”

Wisdom Politics Moral Economy Intellectual Liberalism Moral Life

Book:The Law

Source: The Law

“The idea of duty--that recognition of something to be lived for beyond the mere satisfaction of self--is to the moral life what the addition of a great central ganglion is to animal life.”

Ideas Self Animal Moral Duty Mere Satisfaction Recognition Animal Life Moral Life

Book:Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)

“The poet has to make a synthesis out of the moral life of our time, and this life is lived at this moment on a political plane.”

Moments Political Life Is Moral Poet This Life Planes Our Time Synthesis Moral Life

Author:Rose Macaulay

“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.”

“A long-established occupation may form the very foundations of the moral life, that the art with which a man has solaced his toil may be the salvation of his uncertain temperament.”

Men May Long Art Form Moral Foundation Salvation Occupation Uncertain Toil Temperament Moral Life

Book:Twenty Years at Hull-House: With Autobiographical Notes

Source: Twenty Years at Hull-House: With Autobiographical Notes

“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.”

People Men World Doe Different Spiritual Form Life Is Night Moral Opinion Divine Regard Spiritual Life Inward Good Night Diving Moral Life

Author:Emanuel Swedenborg

“Business is the real test of the moral life.”

Real Moral Tests Moral Life

Author:Ted Malloch

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

Soul Actors Moral Scene Spectators Moral Life

Author:Joseph Marie, baron de Gerando

“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.”

Individual Goal Moral Divine Essentials Ultimate Bigger Increase Remains Objectives Attributes Ultimate Goal Moral Life

Author:Roberto Unger

“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.”

People Needs Stills Life Is Moral Too Much Economic Scary Moral Life

Author:Joe Lieberman

“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.”

Source: Theory and Philosophy of Art: Style, Artist, and Society

“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.”

Doe War Dream Religion Natural Moral Crime Example Morality Civilization Ethics Weak Aids Significant Conclusion Our Time Our Dreams Maintaining Warrants Savagery Moral Life

Book:The Lessons of History

Source: The Lessons of History

“We may not need God to tell us where the world came from, but we need God to be able to live moral lives and for there to be morality in the first place.”

World Needs Firsts May Able Moral Morality Need God Moral Life

Author:Rebecca Goldstein

“The law is the witness and external deposit of our moral life. Its history is the history of the moral development of the race.”

Law Race Moral Development Morality Ethics Witness Deposits Moral Life Moral Development

Book:The Path of the Law

Source: The Path of the Law

“Man is like a tree, with the mighty trunk of intellect, the spreading branches of imagination, and the roots of the lower instincts that bind him to the earth. The moral life, however, is the fruit he bears; in it his true nature is revealed.”

Men Earth Imagination Moral Tree Bears Roots Instinct Fruit Intellect Branches True Nature Trunks Moral Life

Author:Felix Adler

“We should seek to free the moral life from the embarrassments and entanglements in which it has been involved by the quibbles of the schools and the mutual antagonisms of the sects; to introduce into it an element of downrightness and practical earnestness; above all, to secure to the modern world, in its struggle with manifold evil, the boon of moral unity, despite intellectual diversity.”

“The Buddha takes no position on gods, he suggests they may exist or they may not, but either way you can live a moral life.”

Way May Moral Position Moral Life

Author:Robert M. Pirsig

“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.”

Source: After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory

“The religiously observant is lumped in with the nominal Muslim, the nominal Muslim is lumped in with the non-Muslim and the radical. If we want to make sense of this mess and stop pushing Muslims into the arms of the extremist, we need to make meaningful distinctions between the religion of Islam that a billion Muslims follow and see as a guidance as a peaceful righteous moral life and the puritanical Islam of a minority which so captures the media's attention.”

“My vocabulary is adequate for writing notes and keeping journals but absolutely useless for an active moral life.”

Writing Moral Notes Active Useless Journal Vocabulary Adequate Moral Life Keeping A Journal Writing Notes

Book:Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Stories

Source: Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Stories

“A crucial turning point in that earlier history occurred when men and women of good will turned aside from the task of shoring up the Roman imperium and ceased to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of that imperium. What they set themselves out to achieve instead - often not recognizing fully what they were doing - was the construction of new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the coming age of barbarism and darkness.”

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

Would Be Life Is Mother Moral Keys Ashamed Moral Life

Author:J. P. Morgan

“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.”

Ifs Knows Men Want Believe Doe Made Reason Hands Courses Force Moral Impossible Divine Permit Omnipotent Moral Life

Book:The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies

Source: The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies

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

Humans Form Moral Our Lives Depends Endeavor Recognizing Promoting Cloning Moral Life Playing God Human Cloning

Author:Alex Epstein

“Not only our moral life, but even our use of theoretical reason - on which we rely in rationally inquiring into nature - presupposes that we are free.”

Reason Use Moral Rely Theoretical Inquiring Moral Life

Author:Allen W. Wood

“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.”

Ifs Reality Spiritual Values Moral Words Of Wisdom Foundation Civil Rights African American Hinges Moral Values Moral Life Rediscovery Moral Education

Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.

“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.”

Men Character Differences Moral Regret Honor Morality Ethics Caught Latter Moral Life

Author:H. L. Mencken

“It is perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and I think it's perfectly possible to live a life peppered with ill-doing and believe in God.”

Thinking Believe Belief Moral Wise Ill Witty Believe In God Belief In God Moral Life

Author:J. K. Rowling

“I was a wife and mother, blameless in moral life, with a deep sense of duty and a proud self-respect; it was while I was this that doubt struck me, and while I was in the guarded circle of the home, with no dream of outside work or outside liberty, that I lost all faith in Christianity.”

Self Home Dream Mother Lost Liberty Moral Christianity Doubt Wife Duty Proud Circles Self Respect Guarded Blameless Wives And Mothers Moral Life

Book:Annie Besant: An Autobiography

Source: Annie Besant: An Autobiography

“If we are to survive, we must have ideas, vision, and courage. These things are rarely produced by committees. Everything that matters in our intellectual and moral life begins with an individual confronting his own mind and conscience in a room by himself.”

Ifs Mind Ideas Matter Individual Rooms Moral Vision Knowledge Courage Learning Intellectual Conscience Management Committees Confronting Moral Compass Moral Life

Author:Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

“My language limitations here are real. My vocabulary is adequate for writing notes and keeping journals but absolutely useless for an active moral life. If I really knew this language, there would surely be in my head, as there is in Webster's or the Dictionary of American Slang, that unreducible verb designed to tell a person like me what to do next.”

Source: Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Stories

“If I've learned anything in twenty-nine years, it's that every human being you see in the course of a day has a problem that's sucking up at least 70 percent of his or her radar. My gift - bad choice of words - is that I can look at you, him, her, them, whoever, and tell right away what is keeping them awake at night: money; feelings of insignificance; overwhelming boredom; evil children; job troubles; or perhaps death, in one of its many costumes, perched in the wings. What surprises me about humanity is that in the end such a narrow range of plights defines our moral lives.”

“What surprises me about humanity is that in the end such a narrow range of plights defines our moral lives.”

Ends Humanity Moral Surprise Range Surprise Me Plight Moral Life

Author:Douglas Coupland

“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.”

People World Trying Looks Important Hard Moral Struggle Failing Messages Angel Gains Get Up Decent Keep Trying Chaotic Moral Life

Author:Joss Whedon

“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.”

Men Trying Whole Use Able Force Moral Cases Projects Absolutes Structure Reform Renewal Absolute Power Moral Life

Book:Meaning

Source: Meaning

“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.”

“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.”

Men Social Causes Moral Groups Human Nature Objects Morality Solidarity Vary Social Life Moral Life

Book:The Division of Labor in Society

Source: The Division of Labor in Society

“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.”

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

Religion Moral Atheism Example Aids Significant Our Time Maintaining Moral Life

Book:The Lessons of History

Source: The Lessons of History

“It is a fool only, and not the philosopher, nor even the prudent man, that will live as if there were no God... Were a man impressed as fully and strongly as he ought to be with the belief of a God, his moral life would be regulated by the force of belief; he would stand in awe of God and of himself, and would not do the thing that could not be concealed from either.”

Ifs Men Would Be Religion Belief Force Moral Fool Ought Morality Philosopher Awe Impressed Concealed Prudent Moral Life

Book:The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies

Source: The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies

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Moral Life Quotes