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Morality Quotes

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Morality Quotes

“The foundation of all morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying; to give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibilities of knowledge.”

Giving Believe Done Lying Possibility Morality Giving Up Evidence Foundation Pretending Propositions

Book:Collected essays

Source: Collected essays

“Conscription is the vitality of a nation, the purification of its morality, and the real foundations of all its habits”

Real Nations Military Habit Morality Foundation Vitality Purification Conscription

Author:Napoleon Bonaparte

“The modern state appeals to morality, to religion, and to natural law as the ideological foundation of its existence. At the same time it is prepared to infringe any or all of these in the interest of self-preservation.”

Self States Law Interest Natural Existence Modern Morality Foundation Prepared Appeals Preservation Ideological Natural Law Self Preservation

Book:Diary of a Bad Year

Source: Diary of a Bad Year

“To justify Christian morality because it provides a foundation of morality, instead of showing the necessity of Christian morality from the truth of Christianity, is a very dangerous inversion.”

Christian Christianity Atheism Dangerous Morality Foundation Positive Atheism Justify Christian Morality Inversions

Book:The Idea of a Christian Society

Source: The Idea of a Christian Society

“Morality is a biological adaptation no less than are hands and feet and teeth... Considered as a rationally justifiable set of claims about an objective something, ethics is illusory. I appreciate that when somebody says, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself,' they think they are referring above and beyond themselves... Nevertheless... such reference is truly without foundation. Morality is just an aid to survival and reproduction... and any deeper meaning is illusory...”

“Natural knowledge, seeking to satisfy natural wants, has found the ideas which can alone still spiritual cravings. I say that natural knowledge, in desiring to ascertain the laws of comfort, has been driven to discover those of conduct, and to lay the foundations of a new morality.”

Want Has Beens Stills Ideas Spiritual Law Science Found Natural Morality Comfort Foundation Lays Seeking Driven Craving

Book:Huxley's Autobiography and Essays

Source: Huxley's Autobiography and Essays

“[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.”

Source: The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations

“Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all government and in all the combinations of human society.”

Humans Government Religion Social Virtue Morality Foundation Combination Human Society Felicity Free Government Republicanism

Book:The Works of John Adams Vol. 9: Letters and State Papers 1799 - 1811

Source: The Works of John Adams Vol. 9: Letters and State Papers 1799 - 1811

“Lastly, our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits.... Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.”

Source: The Great Orations and Senatorial Speech of Daniel Webster

“All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly which can - and must - be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a "perfect society" on any foundation other than "Women and children first!" is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly - and no doubt will keep trying.”

Source: Time Enough for Love

“The Ten Commandments are the most visible symbol because these commandments are recognized by Christians and Jews alike as being the foundation of our system of public morality.”

Christian Morality Ten Foundation Jew Symbols Visible Commandments Ten Commandments

Author:Pat Robertson

“I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics.”

I Can Can Do Compassion Morality Ethics Foundation Reverence For Life

Author:Albert Schweitzer

“The first principle of value that we need to rediscover is this: that all reality hinges on moral foundations. In other words, that this is a moral universe, and that there are moral laws of the universe just as abiding as the physical laws.”

Needs Firsts Reality Law Values Universe Lost Inspiring Moral Principles Morality Foundation Abiding Hinges Moral Law

Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.

“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

“You are right in speaking of the moral foundations of science, but you cannot turn around and speak of the scientific foundations of morality.”

Turns Speak Moral Morality Foundation

Author:Albert Einstein

“The foundations of national morality must be laid in private families.”

Morality Foundation

Book:The Portable John Adams

Source: The Portable John Adams

“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

“Looking to future generations, there is no cause to fear that the social instincts will grow weaker... the social instincts, - the prime principle of man's moral constitution - with the aid of active intellectual powers and the effects of habit, naturally lead to the golden rule, "As ye would that men should do to you; do ye to them likewise"; and this lies at the foundation of morality.”

“The foundation of morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying.”

Life Done Success Lying Trust Morality Foundation Betrayal Deception

Book:Collected essays

Source: Collected essays

“The only foundation for . . . a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.”

Source: Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical ...

“The national government...will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality.”

Government Strong Nations Christianity Morality Offers Bases Foundation Protection Collectives

Author:Adolf Hitler

“If we did a good act merely from love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of the Atheist? ...Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than the love of God.”

Ifs Religion Belief Religious Virtue Atheism Morality Foundation Atheist Arise God Love Church And State Separation Of Church And State Organized Religion Separation Between Church And State Founding Fathers Atheist Christian Right

Book:The portable Thomas Jefferson

Source: The portable Thomas Jefferson

“Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure (and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.”

“Man was destined for society. His morality therefore was to be formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of right and wrong merely relative to this. This sense is as much a part of his nature as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling; it is the true foundation of morality... The moral sense, or conscience, is as much a part of man as his leg or arm. It is given to all human beings in a stronger or weaker degree, as force of members is given them in a greater or less degree. It may be strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb of the body.”

“The only assurance of our nation's safety is to lay our foundation in morality and religion.”

Nations Morality Safety Foundation Lays Presidential Godly Assurance Christian Heritage Morality And Religion

Author:Abraham Lincoln

“The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life.”

“The spread of democracy is a wonderful thing-it is a necessary foundation for peace-and it can happen. But it cannot be advanced by force, and still less by the creation of a new empire, an idea that is as unworkable as it morally mistaken. Empire, the embodiment of force, violates equity on a global scale. No lover of freedom can give it support. It is especially contrary to the founding principles of the United States.”

“The founders of this nation understood that private morality is the fount from whence sound public policy springs. Replying to Washington's first inaugural address, the Senate stated: "We feel, sir, the force and acknowledge the justness of the observation that the foundation of our national policy should be lain in private morality. If individuals be not influenced by moral principles it is in vain to look for public virtue."”

“There are three points of doctrine the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these three articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark. The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy.”

Source: Letters of Mrs. Adams: the wife of John Adams

“The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world.”

World Government Religion Winning Principles Policy Citizens Morality Pure Foundation Affection Command Attributes Free Government Inaugural

Book:The speeches, addresses and messages, of the several presidents of the United States, at the openings of Congress and at their respective inaugurations: Also, the Declaration of independence, the Constitution of the United States, and Washington's farewell address to his fellow-citizens

Source: The speeches, addresses and messages, of the several presidents of the United States, at the openings of Congress and at their respective inaugurations: Also, the Declaration of independence, the Constitution of the United States, and Washington's farewell address to his fellow-citizens

“Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness.”

Religion Liberty Moral Morality Foundation Morality And Religion Solid Foundation Good Moral Christian Morality

Author:Samuel Adams

“In such a performance you may lay the foundation of national happiness only in religion, not by leaving it doubtful "whether morals can exist without it," but by asserting that without religion morals are the effects of causes as purely physical as pleasant breezes and fruitful seasons.”

May Religion Causes Moral Effects Morality Performances Seasons Foundation Lays Leaving Pleasant Breeze Doubtful

Book:Letters: 1793-1813

Source: Letters: 1793-1813

“The tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications, I behold the surest pledges, that as on one side, no local prejudices, or attachments; no seperate views, nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests: so, on another, that the foundations of our National policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality...”

“Politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality's foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. We need religion as a guide. We need it because we are imperfect, and our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they're sinners can bring to democracy the tolerance it requires in order to survive.”

Needs Enough Government Religion Order Church Democracy Morality Foundation Humble Guides Tolerance Related Sinner Imperfect Inseparable Religion And Politics

Author:Ronald Reagan

“Without doubt the greatest injury of all was done by basing morals on myth. For, sooner or later, myth is recognized for what it is, and disappears. Then morality loses the foundation on which it has been built.”

Has Beens Done Wisdom Religion Loses Liberty Moral Doubt Atheism Morality Built Foundation Positive Atheism Myth Disappear Injury Sooner Or Later

Author:Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel

“How could politics be a science, if laws and forms of government had not a uniform influence upon society? Where would be the foundation of morals, if particular characters had no certain or determinate power to produce particular sentiments, and if these sentiments had no constant operation on actions?”

Source: Essays Moral, Political, and Literary

“We need to attack the false foundation of autonomous human reasoning that leads to evolution and millions of years, and proclaim that God's revealed Word is authoritative and its history of the world is foundational to Christian morality and the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

World Needs Years Humans Christian Jesus Christ Millions Evolution Morality Jesus Christ Foundation Reasoning World History Autonomous Christian Morality

Author:Ken Ham