Best morality & evil Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Morality which is based on ideas, or on an ideal, is an unmitigated evil.”

“The evil arising from mental improvement can be corrected only by a still further progress in that very improvement. Either morality is a fable, or the more enlightened we are, the more attached to it we become.”

Stills Evil Progress Morality Improvement Enlightened Fables

Author:Madame de Stael

“There is a certain kind of morality which is even more alien to good and evil than amorality is.”

Kind Certain Evil Morality Aliens Good And Evil Amorality

Author:Simone Weil

“Suspending moral judgment is not the immorality of the novel; it is its morality. The morality that stands against the ineradicable human habit of judging instantly, ceaselessly, and everyone; of judging before, and in the absence of, understanding. From the viewpoint of the novel's wisdom, that fervid readiness to judge is the most detestable stupidity, the most pernicious evil.”

Humans Evil Understanding Views Moral Novel Judging Habit Morality Judgment Stupidity Absence Readiness Immorality Pernicious Moral Judgment

Author:Milan Kundera

“You have to imbue the characters with their own sort of feeling of justification and morality. Everyone has that, whether we see them as evil or not. So I try to bring the characters to life by making them likable or lovable, in the sense that they can be, at least to themselves.”

Trying Character Feelings Evil Morality Justification Lovable

Author:Mark Russell

“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.”

“The garden [of Eden] is the realm of pure beauty from which man is expelled when he becomes interested in ethics, in the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The return into paradise, the homecoming, depends on him penetrating the veils of morality to glimpse again the lineaments of lost beauty.”

Men Evil Lost Tree Depends Return Morality Pure Ethics Garden Fruit Realms Paradise Good And Evil Glimpse Veils Eden Homecoming Garden Of Eden Tree Of Knowledge

Author:John Carroll

“If God is omnipotent, omniscient and wholly good, whence evil? If God wills to prevent evil but cannot, then He is not omnipotent. If He can prevent evil but does not, then he is not good. In either case he is not God.”

Ifs Doe Religion Evil Cases Morality Gods Will Omnipotent Omniscient

Author:David Hume

“War, even in the best state of an army, with all the alleviations of courtesy and honor, with all the correctives of morality and religion, is nevertheless so great an evil, that to engage in it without a clear necessity is a crime of the blackest dye. When the necessity is clear, it then becomes a crime to shrink from it.”

War States Evil Clear Crime Honor Morality Army Nevertheless Shrinks Courtesy Morality And Religion

Author:Robert Southey

“To be effective, morality has to be reasoned (or worked out). To want ("vouloir", Fr.) to repress evil only by coercion, and to obtain morality by a sort of training with the help of constraint, without motivating it from within, is to make it an unnatural result, devoided of lastind value.”

Want Helping Values Evil Results Morality Training Constraints Coercion Unnatural

Author:African Spir

“Superstitions, and especially the early cultivation of religion, with its "fear of the Lord" and of unknown mysterious agencies, are especially potent in the development of the instinct of fear. Even the early cultivation of morality and conscientiousness, with their fears of right and wrong, often causes psychoneurotic states in later life. Religious, social, and moral taboos and superstitions, associated with apprehension of threatening impending evil, based on the fear instinct, form the germs of psychopathic affections.”

Source: The Causation and Treatment of Psychopathic Diseases

“The human race will disappear. Other races will appear and disappear in turn. The sky will become icy and void, pierced by the feeble light of half-dead stars. Which will also disappear. Everything will disappear. And what human beings do is just as free of sense as the free motion of elementary particles. Good, evil, morality, feelings? Pure 'Victorian fictions'. Only egotism exists.”

Humans Feelings Light Turns Evil Stars Human Beings Race Half Fiction Sky Morality Pure Disappear Human Race Void Particles Egotism Victorian Icy Good Evil

Author:H. P. Lovecraft

“The greatest travelers have not gone beyond the limits of their own world; they have trodden the paths of their own souls, of good and evil, of morality and redemption.”

World Soul Evil Gone Path Morality Limits Redemption Good And Evil Traveler

Book:Fear of Freedom: With the Essay,

Source: Fear of Freedom: With the Essay,

“The idea that boxing lends itself to cinema so well is because it's usually a morality play - good against evil, insecurity and triumph, fear strikes out, so the audience can really get drawn into the drama of it. Also, it was sensual and very primal. I think subliminaly we do two things - life is a fight, life is a struggle and we understand that from our early, early, early ancestors, and life is a race.”

“And he who must be a creator in good and evil: verily, he must be an annihilator first and demolish values.”

Firsts Values Evil Creativity Morality Creator Good And Evil Demolish

Author:Friedrich Nietzsche

“Virtue and vice suppose the freedom to choose between good and evil; but what can be the morals of a woman who is not even in possession of herself, who has nothing of her own, and who all her life has been trained to extricate herself from the arbitrary by ruse, from constraint by using her charms?... As long as she is subject to man's yoke or to prejudice, as long as she receives no professional education, as long as she is deprived of her civil rights, there can be no moral law for her!”

Men Long Has Beens Law Evil Moral Virtue Rights Subjects Morality Prejudice Vices Possession Civil Rights Charm Good And Evil Arbitrary Deprived Constraints Yoke Moral Law Freedom To Choose

Author:Flora Tristan

“This is the crux of the moral pessimists: if they really wanted to promote their neighbor's redemption, then they would have to resolve themselves to spoiling existence for him, and thus to being his misfortune; out of pity, they would have to--become evil!”

Ifs Wanted Evil Existence Moral Morality Neighbor Pity Redemption Good And Evil Resolve Misfortunes Pessimist Crux

Author:Friedrich Nietzsche

“That is the real pivot of all bourgeois consciousness in all countries: fear and hate of the instinctive, intuitional, procreativebody in man or woman. But of course this fear and hate had to take on a righteous appearance, so it became moral, said that the instincts, intuitions and all the activities of the procreative body were evil, and promised a reward for their suppression. That is the great clue to bourgeois psychology: the reward business.”

Source: Delphi Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence (Illustrated)

“Separate religion from morality, and you have the true energy for evil within man, the terrible, cruel, devastating, and inhuman principle which naturally lies in his spirit. Here the division of the indivisible punishes itself most awfully.”

Men Spirit Lying Religion Evil Energy Principles Terrible Morality Division Inhuman Indivisible Evil Within

Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

“... the structure of our public morality crashed to earth. Above its grave a tombstone read, "Be tolerant--even of evil." Logically the next step would be to say to our commonwealth's criminals, "I disagree that it's all right to rob and murder, but naturally I respect your opinion." Tolerance is only complacence when it makes no distinction between right and wrong.”

Would Be Earth Evil Next Steps Opinion Morality Murder Structure Criminals Tolerance Graves Distinction Disagree Next Steps Commonwealth Tombstone

Book:The Desegregated Heart: A Virginian's Stand in Time of Transition

Source: The Desegregated Heart: A Virginian's Stand in Time of Transition

“Zarathustra was the first to consider the fight of good and evil the very wheel in the machinery of things: the transposition of morality into the metaphysical realm, as a force, cause, and end in itself, is his work. [...] Zarathustra created this most calamitous error, morality; consequently, he must also be the first to recognize it.”

Firsts Ends Fighting Evil Force Causes Morality Errors Realms Wheels Good And Evil Metaphysical Machinery Zarathustra

Book:Philosophical Writings: Friedrich Nietzsche

Source: Philosophical Writings: Friedrich Nietzsche

“There is no possible source of evil except good.”

Religion Evil Source Morality Philosophical

Author:Saint Augustine

“Liberty, according to my metaphysics, is an intellectual quality, an attribute that belongs not to fate nor chance. Neither possesses it, neither is capable of it. There is nothing moral or immoral in the idea of it. The definition of it is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power; it can elect between objects, indifferent in point of morality, neither morally good nor morally evil.”

Source: The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections

“For the first time in history, the rational and the good are fully armed in the battle against evil. Here we finally find the answer to our paradox; now we can understand the nature of the social power held by evil. Ultimately, the evil, the irrational, truly has no power. The evil men’s control of morality is transient; it lives on borrowed time made possible only by the errors of the good. In time, as more honest men grasp the truth, evil’s stranglehold will be easily broken.”

Men Firsts Made Evil Social Answers Honest Broken Morality Battle First Time Errors Rational Paradox Irrational Borrowed Honest Man Transient Evil Man Social Power Borrowed Time

Author:Andrew Bernstein

“When a man declares: "There are no blacks and whites [in morality]" he is making a psychological confession, and what he means is: "I am unwilling to be wholly good - and please don't regard me as wholly evil!"”

Men Mean Evil Morality Please Regard Psychological Confession Unwilling

Author:Ayn Rand

“However great an evil immorality may be, we must not forget that it is not without its beneficial consequences. It is only through extremes that men can arrive at the middle path of wisdom and virtue.”

Men May Evil Forget Virtue Path Middle Morality Consequence Extremes Beneficial Immorality Two Extremes Middle Path

Book:The Limits of State Action

Source: The Limits of State Action

“Once a man recognizes himself as a being surrounded by other beings in this world and begins to respect his life and take it to the highest value, he becomes a thinking being. Then he values other lives and experiences them as part of his own life. With that, his goal is to help everyone take their life to the highest value; anything which limits or destroys a life is evil. That is morality. That is how men are related to the world around them.”

Thinking Men World Helping Life Is Values Evil Goal This World Morality Limits Highest Related

Author:Albert Schweitzer

“Change is always subjective. All through evolution you find that the conquest of nature comes by change in the subject. Apply this to religion and morality, and you will find that the conquest of evil comes by the change in the subjective alone. That is how the Advaitic system gets its whole force, on the subjective side of man.”

Men Whole Evil Force Sides Subjects Evolution Morality Conquest Subjective

Author:Swami Vivekananda

“There is a very real evil consequent on ascribing supernatural origin to the received maxilms of morality. That origin consecrates the whole of them and protects them from being discussed or criticized.”

Real Whole Evil Morality Protect

Author:John Stuart Mill

“If you just open your dictionary, "morality" is the sense that separates good from evil. And if you really want to see what evil is, it just says that "evil is the opposite of good." And if you ask "Then what is good?" it says that it's the opposite of evil.”

Ifs Want Evil Asks Morality Opposites Dictionary

Author:Gaspar Noe

“You can put whatever you want inside evil and good in morality.”

Want Evil Morality

Author:Gaspar Noe

“In matter-ism (materialism), there can be nothing wrong with the world since there is no right way for the world to be in the first place. Everything is just matter in motion and that's that. In Mind-ism (monism) there's a different route to the same problem. There cannot be a problem of evil, even in principle, since in Mind-ism even morality is maya; illusion. In neither story, then (if we're to be consistent with their principles), can the issue of evil be raised. But in real life the problem comes up all the time. That's the difficulty.”

“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

“What happens when good people are put into an evil place? Do they triumph or does the situation dominate their past history and morality?”

People Doe Happens Past Evil Situation Morality Triumph Good People

Author:Philip Zimbardo

“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.”

“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.”

Source: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“Human nature is so constituted that the propensity for evil is always intensified by external circumstances, and the morality of the individual depends much more on the conditions of his existence and the environment in which he lives than on his own will.”

Humans Evil Individual Existence Environment Conditions Human Nature Depends Circumstances Morality Propensity

Author:Mikhail Bakunin

“Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life. This is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring, and limiting life are evil.”

Source: Civilization and ethics. 3d. ed

“No doubt Jack the Ripper excused himself on the grounds that it was human nature.”

Humans Law Evil Doubt Human Nature Morality No Doubt Wickedness Jack The Ripper

Book:Not That it Matters

Source: Not That it Matters

“Don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter.”

Knows Real Evil Morality Encounters Imaginary Stoops Real Ones

Book:The Select Works of Oliver Goldsmith: In One Volume. With the Portrait of the Author..

Source: The Select Works of Oliver Goldsmith: In One Volume. With the Portrait of the Author..

“To see evil and call it good, mocks God. Worse, it makes goodness meaningless. A word without meaning is an abomination, for when the word passes beyond understanding the very thing the word stands for passes out of the world and cannot be recalled.”

World Evil Understanding Morality Goodness Meaningless Abomination

Author:Stephen R. Lawhead

“I have something to say to the religionist who feels atheists never say anything positive: You are an intelligent human being. Your life is valuable for its own sake. You are not second-class in the universe, deriving meaning and purpose from some other mind. You are not inherently evil—you are inherently human, possessing the positive rational potential to help make this a world of morality, peace and joy. Trust yourself.”

Source: Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist

“Life itself is neither a good nor an evil: life is where good or evil find a place, depending on how you make it for them.”

Life Is Evil Words Of Wisdom Morality Ethics

Book:The Essays of Michel de Montaigne

Source: The Essays of Michel de Montaigne

“God is the creator of all things, right? He is the force that dictates the laws of the universe, and is therefore the ultimate source of ethics. He is absolute morality... We claim to be doing good. But the Lord Ruler - as God - defines what is good. So by opposing him we're actually evil. But since he's doing the wrong thing, does evil actually count as good in this case?”

Doe Law Universe Evil Force Lord Cases Source Morality Ethics All Things Ultimate Claims Absolutes Creator Rulers Doing Good Wrong Things Opposing

Book:Mistborn Trilogy

Source: Mistborn Trilogy

“He wasn't evil as much as magnificently innocent of any kind of morality.”

Kind Evil Morality Innocent

Book:Death Masks: Book five of The Dresden Files

Source: Death Masks: Book five of The Dresden Files

“If patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, it is not merely because evil deeds may be performed in the name of patriotism, but because patriotic fervor can obliterate moral distinctions altogether.”

Ifs May Lasts Evil Names Moral Morality Deeds Distinction Patriotism Patriotic Refuge Scoundrels Fervor

Book:The Citizen Decides: A Guide to Responsible Thinking in Time of Crisis

Source: The Citizen Decides: A Guide to Responsible Thinking in Time of Crisis

“Reverence for Life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, assisting, and enhancing life and that to destroy, harm, or to hinder life is evil. Affirmation of the world - that is affirmation of the will to live, which appears in phenomenal forms all around me - is only possible for me in that I give myself out for other life.”

“Religion has ever filled the mind of man with darkness, and kept him in ignorance of his real duties and true interests. It is by dispelling the clouds and phantoms of religion, that we shall discover truth, morality and reason. Religion diverts us from the causes of evils, and from these remedies which nature advocates, far from curing; it only aggravates, perpetuates and multiplies them.”

Men Mind Real Reason Evil Causes Interest Darkness Ignorance Duty Morality Filled Clouds Remedy Phantoms Agnosticism Dispelling

Author:Baron d'Holbach

“It is almost impossible systematically to constitute a natural moral law. Nature has no principles. She furnishes us with no reason to believe that human life is to be respected. Nature, in her indifference, makes no distinction between good and evil.”

Source: The Revolt of the Angels: Works by France

“The cause of all human evils is the not being able to apply general principles to special cases.”

Humans Able Evil Causes Principles Cases Special Morality Ethics

Book:The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments

Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments

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Morality Quotes