Best morality & action Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

Source: A Treatise on Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning Into Moral Subjects; and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

“Sport carries on without deviation the mechanical tradition of furnishing relief and distraction to the worker after he has finished his work proper so that he is at no time independent of one technique or another. In sport the citizen of the technical society finds the same spirit, criteria, morality, actions and objectives in short, all the technical laws and customs which he encounters in office or factory.”

Action Law Spirit Sports Citizens Morality Office Tradition Independent Workers Finished Technique Objectives Encounters Relief Carrie Customs Distraction Factories Criteria Deviation

Author:Jacques Ellul

“The "Lucifer Effect" describes the point in time when an ordinary, normal person first crosses the boundary between good and evil to engage in an evil action. It represents a transformation of human character that is significant in its consequences. Such transformations are more likely to occur in novel settings, in "total situations," where social situational forces are sufficiently powerful to overwhelm, or set aside temporally, personal attributes of morality, compassion, or sense of justice and fair play.”

“Morality pertains only to the sphere of man's free will - only to those actions which are open to his choice.”

Men Action Religion Choices Morality Free Will Spheres

Author:Ayn Rand

“If the knowledge of torture of others makes you sick, it is a case of sympathy... It can be argued that behaviour based on sympathy is in an important sense egoistic, for one is oneself pleased at others' pleasure and pained at others' pain, and the pursuit of one's own utility may thus be helped by sympathetic action.”

Ifs May Important Action Pain Religion Pleasure Cases Morality Sick Oneself Pursuit Torture Behaviour Utility Sympathetic Pain And Pleasure

Book:Choice, Welfare and Measurement

Source: Choice, Welfare and Measurement

“Moral truth, resting entirely upon the ascertained consequences of actions, supposes a process of observation and reasoning.”

Action Process Moral Morality Consequence Observation Reasoning

Book:A few days in Athens: being the translation of a Greek manuscript discovered in Herculaneum

Source: A few days in Athens: being the translation of a Greek manuscript discovered in Herculaneum

“Real morality is based on a single criterion: right action, appropriate action, in the present moment and present situation.”

Real Moments Action Situation Morality Appropriate Present Moment Criteria Right Action Present Situation

Book:Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth About Reality

Source: Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth About Reality

“Only a moral education based on free inner discipline can bring to bear a salutary action and lead to a true morality.”

Action Moral Bears Discipline Morality Moral Education

Author:African Spir

“A nation's domestic and foreign policies and actions should be derived from the same standards of ethics, honesty and morality which are characteristic of the individual citizens of the nation.”

Should Government Action Individual Nations Honesty Policy Citizens Morality Standards Ethics Characteristics Foreign Policy

Author:Jimmy Carter

“To have the fear of God before our eyes, and, in our mutual dealings with each other, to govern our actions by the eternal measures of right and wrong:MThe first of these will comprehend the duties of religion;Mthe second, those of morality, which are so inseparably connected together, that you cannot divide these two tableswithout breaking and mutually destroying them both.”

Firsts Two Eye Action Together Religion Duty Morality Eternal Bible Connected Mutual Divides Destroying Our Actions Dealings

Author:Laurence Sterne

“If morality had naturally no influence on human passions and actions, it were in vain to take such pains to inculcate it; and nothing would be more fruitless than that multitude of rules and precepts with which all moralists abound.”

Ifs Humans Would Be Action Pain Passion Influence Morality Vain Multitudes Moralist

Book:A Treatise of Human Nature: Revision of Great Book

Source: A Treatise of Human Nature: Revision of Great Book

“All morality depends upon our sentiments; and when any action or quality of the mind pleases us after a certain manner we say it is virtuous; and when the neglect or nonperformance of it displeases us after a like manner, we say that we lie under an obligation to perform it.”

Mind Action Lying Certain Quality Virtue Depends Morality Please Obligation Neglect Sentiments Virtuous

Book:Moral and Political Philosophy

Source: Moral and Political Philosophy

“Do you suppose that sacrifice is the hallmark of moral action?--Just stop to consider whether sacrifice is not involved in every action that is done with deliberation, the worst as well as the best.”

Wells Done Action Moral Sacrifice Worst Involved Morality Hallmark Deliberation Moral Action

Author:Friedrich Nietzsche

“The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, 'I was wrong'.”

Source: Pieces of Eight Pa

“... it is as true in morals as in physics that all force is imperishable; therefore the consequences of a human action never cease.”

Humans Action Force Moral Influence Morality Consequence Physics Cease Human Actions

Author:Tennessee Celeste Claflin

“I read these words which are the sum of all moral philosophy, and which cut short all the disputes of the casuists: When in doubt if an action is good or bad, refrain.”

Ifs Philosophy Action Religion Moral Doubt Cutting Morality Disputes Refrain When In Doubt Moral Philosophy

Book:The Portable Voltaire

Source: The Portable Voltaire

“Imposed philosophical morality (laws/rules) will not save the world. Only a calculated tangible plan to alter our circumstances so such actions pose no merit will stop immoral behaviour.”

World Action Law Plans Circumstances Morality Philosophical Merit Behaviour Immoral Tangible Save The World

Author:Peter Joseph

“...only the pleasure which proceeds from a rational value judgement can be regarded as moral, pleasure, as such, is not a guide to action nor a standard of morality.”

Action Values Pleasure Moral Morality Standards Guides Rational Judgement

Author:Ayn Rand

“First all men must be able to become men by the improvement of their conditions of existence, so that a universal morality can be created. If I begin by saying to them: "Thou shalt not lie," there is no longer any possibility of political action. What matters first is the liberation of man.”

Ifs Men Firsts Matter Able Action Political Lying Existence Conditions Possibility Morality Universal Improvement Liberation What Matters Political Action

Author:Jean-Paul Sartre

“Mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life, and your actions happen in accordance with that. All ethics and morality, and a sense of interconnectedness, come out of the act of paying attention.”

Giving Action Attention Compassion Morality Mindfulness Ethics Clarity Pay Attention Loving Life Interconnectedness

Author:Jon Kabat-Zinn

“Concupiscence and force are the source of all our actions; concupiscence causes voluntary actions, force involuntary ones.”

Action Force Causes Source Morality Our Actions Involuntary

Book:Penses

Source: Penses

“Rights are not a matter of numbers - and there can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions forbidden to an individual, but permitted to a mob.”

Matter Action Law Individual Numbers Rights Morality Forbidden In-laws

Book:Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

Source: Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

“I saw that all beings are fated to happiness: action is not life, but a way of wasting some force, an enervation. Morality is the weakness of the brain.”

Way Action Happiness Force Brain Saws Morality Weakness

Author:Arthur Rimbaud

“The true basis of morality is utility; that is, the adaptation of our actions to the promotion of the general welfare and happiness; the endeavour so to rule our lives that we may serve and bless mankind.”

May Action Our Lives Mankind Morality Bases Welfare Bless Adaptation Promotion Our Actions Utility Endeavour General Welfare

Book:Annie Besant: An Autobiography

Source: Annie Besant: An Autobiography

“Good action films - not crap, but good action films - are really morality plays. They deal in modern, mythic culture.”

Play Action Film Culture Deals Modern Morality Crap Action Films Good Actions

Author:Sylvester Stallone

“I tend to think of action movies as exuberant morality plays in which good triumphs over evil.”

Thinking Play Action Evil Morality Triumph Action Movie Triumph Over Evil

Author:Sylvester Stallone

“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.”

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

Action Morality Vengeance Orthodoxy

Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton

“The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.”

Life Giving Humans Important Action Existence Self Esteem Depends Balance Morality Ethics Dignity Strive Endeavor Our Actions Ethics And Morals

Book:Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century

Source: Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century

“If throughout your life you abstain from murder, theft, fornication, perjury, blasphemy, and disrespect toward your parents, church, and your king, you are conventionally held to deserve moral admiration even if you have never done a single kind, generous or useful action. This very inadequate notion of virtue is an outcome of taboo morality, and has done untold harm.”

Source: Human Society in Ethics and Politics

“Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.”

“The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life. To make this a living force and bring it to clear consciousness is perhaps the foremost task of education. The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action.”

Source: Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives

“Genuine politics -- even politics worthy of the name -- the only politics I am willing to devote myself to -- is simply a matter of serving those around us: serving the community and serving those who will come after us. Its deepest roots are moral because it is a responsibility expressed through action, to and for the whole.”

Matter Whole Action Names Peace Community Responsibility Moral Willing Morality Roots Worthy Genuine Serving Serving Others Moral Duty Rights And Responsibilities Serving The Community

Author:Vaclav Havel

“You can't run a society or cope with its problems if people are not held accountable for what they do.”

People Ifs Problem Running Action Morality

Book:Two Steps Ahead of the Thought Police

Source: Two Steps Ahead of the Thought Police

“The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action.”

Source: Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives

“The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are. And if our words and our actions come from superficial human relations techniques (the Personality Ethic) rather than from our own inner core (the Character Ethic), others will sense that duplicity. We simply won't be able to create and sustain the foundation necessary for effective interdependence.”

Source: Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People: Living THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE Every Day

“Were not the disadvantages of slavery too obvious to stand in need of it, I might enumerate and describe the tedious train of calamities inseparable from it. I might show that it is fatal to religion and morality; that it tends to debase the mind, and corrupt its noblest springs of action. I might show that it relaxes the sinews of industry, clips the wings of commerce, and introduces misery and indigence in every shape.”

Source: The works of Alexander Hamilton: comprising his correspondence, and his political and official writings, exclusive of the Federalist, civil and military. Published from the original manuscripts deposited in the Department of State, by order of the Joint Library Committee of Congress

“There are two principles of established acceptance in morals; first, that self-interest is the mainspring of all of our actions, and secondly, that utility is the test of their value.”

Firsts Two Self Action Values Interest Moral Principles Acceptance Morality Ethics Tests Our Actions Utility Self Interest

Author:Charles Caleb Colton

“All systems of morality are based on the idea that an action has consequences that legitimize or cancel it. A mind imbued with the absurd merely judges that those consequences must be considered calmly.”

Mind Ideas Action Judging Morality Ethics Consequence Absurd Sisyphus Myth Of Sisyphus Actions Have Consequences

Book:The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays

Source: The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays

“Action is the only reality; not only reality, but morality as well.”

Wells Reality Action Morality

Book:Revolution for the Hell of It: The Book That Earned Abbie Hoffman a Five-Year Prison Term at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial

Source: Revolution for the Hell of It: The Book That Earned Abbie Hoffman a Five-Year Prison Term at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial

“Meditation is the art of awareness. And once you are aware, out of your awareness your actions will arise - not out of conscience. Conscience is cultivated by others, by the vested interests, by the establishment. Consciousness is yours. It is individual, it is not collective. Conscience is part of the mob psychology. Consciousness gives you dignity because it gives you individuality. It gives you rebellion, it makes you capable of saying yes or no of your own accord. There is no foreign agency manipulating you in the name of religion, morality, etcetera.”