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Morality Quotes

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Morality Quotes

“If an American is motoring on his own, he (the paragon of morality and chastity) will slow down and stop beside every solitary pretty female pedestrian, bare his teeth in a big smile, and tempt her into his car with a wild roll of the eyes. A lady who fails to appreciate his passion will qualify as an idiot who doesn't realise how lucky she is to have the opportunity of getting to know the owner of this 100-horse-power motor car.”

IfsKnowsBigsEyePassionOpportunityFailingCarMoralityLuckyFemaleAppreciateHorseDown AndTeethIdiotOwnersRealisingSolitarySlow DownMotorChastityPedestriansMotor CarsParagon
Book:My Discovery of America
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“Let us enquire. Who, then, shall challenge the words? Why are they challenged. And by whom? By those who call themselves the guardians of morality, and who are the constituted guardians of religion. Enquiry, it seems, suits not them. They have drawn the line, beyond which human reason shall not pass -- above which human virtue shall not aspire! All that is without their faith or above their rule, is immorality, is atheism, is -- I know not what.”

KnowsHumansReasonSeemsChallengesLinesVirtueAtheismMoralitySuitsAspireGuardianImmoralityHuman ReasonEnquiry
Author:Frances Wright
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“The silliest and most tendentious of baseball writing tries to wrest profundity from the spectacle of grown men hitting a ball with a stick by suggesting linkages between the sport and deep issues of morality, parenthood, history, lost innocence, gentleness, and so on, seemingly ad infinitum . (The effort reeks of silliness because baseball is profound all by itself and needs no excuses; people who don't know this are not fans and are therefore unreachable anyway.”

PeopleKnowsMenNeedsWritingTryingLostSportsEffortIssuesFansMoralityBaseballBallsSticksProfoundExcuseInnocenceParenthoodAdsHittingGentlenessNo ExcusesSuggestingGrown ManProfunditySillinessUnreachableLinkages
Book:Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History
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“For John Howard to get to any high moral ground he would have to first climb out of the volcanic hole he's dug for himself over the last decade. You know, it's like one of those deep diamond mined holes in South Africa, you know, they're about a mile underground. He'd have to come a mile up to get to even equilibrium, let alone have any contest in morality with Kevin Rudd.”

KnowsFirstsLastsMoralMoralitySouthDecadesMilesHolesClimbsDiamondSouth AfricaContestsEquilibriumKevin
Author:Paul Keating
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“If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven.”

IfsKnowsBelieveWellsBookMatterChristianReligionHeavenOpinionFieldsMoralityEternalFoolishKingdomsResurrectionMistakenMaintainingEternal LifeKingdom Of Heaven
Book:Genesi Ad Litteram
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“Lying is the misuse of language. We know that. We need to remember that it works the other way round too. Even with the best intentions, language misused, language used stupidly, carelessly, brutally, language used wrongly, breeds lies, half-truths, confusion. In that sense you can say that grammar is morality. And it is in that sense that I say a writer's first duty is to use language well.”

KnowsWayNeedsFirstsWellsUseRememberUsedLyingLanguageHalfDutyMoralityIntentionRoundsConfusionGrammarMisuseHalf TruthMisusedBest Intentions
Book:Steering the craft: exercises and discussions on story writing for the lone navigator or the mutinous crew
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“Kids are told there are no differences between boys and girls. They are told there is no such thing ultimately as right and wrong. Values are relative. Truth is relative. Morality is defined by individual choice. If that isn't a recipe for sexual harassment and other forms of sexual and physical abuse, I don't know what it is.”

IfsKnowsKidsFormValuesChoicesGirlIndividualDifferencesBoysMoralityTruth IsAbuseDefinedRelativeRecipesHarassmentBoy And GirlPhysical AbuseRelative TruthIndividual Choice
Author:Rush Limbaugh
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“What basic psychological distortion can be found in every civilization of which we know anything? The only psychological force capable of producing these perversions is morality - the concept of right and wrong. The re-interpretation and eventual eradication of the concept of right and wrong are the belated objectives of nearly all of psychotherapy.”

KnowsAmericaFoundForceMoralityCivilizationCapableConceptsObjectivesPsychologicalPropagandaInterpretationDistortionPsychotherapyPerversionBelated
Author:Brock Chisholm
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“Belief, thus, in the supernatural, great as are the services which it rendered in the early stages of human development, cannot be considered to be any longer required, either for enabling us to know what is right and wrong in social morality, or for supplying us with motives to do right and to abstain from wrong.”

KnowsHumansBeliefSocialAtheismStageDevelopmentMoralityPositive AtheismMotiveHuman DevelopmentEnabling
Book:Nature, the Utility of Religion, and Theism. Being three Essays on Religion. With introductory notice by Helen Taylor
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“Ethics and power are separate. Ethics and morality. I think life would be miserable if there weren't some kind of code that people operated by, but history is full of many, many people who have gotten power by very unethical means, and people who were very ethical, who get no power, people who have the most brilliant, lovely, wonderful, nice intentions and bring about horrible things in the world because they don't know how to play the power game.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWorldKindMeanPlayWould BeGamesKnow HowNiceWonderfulMoralityEthicsIntentionBrilliantLovelyHorribleMiserableCodeEthicalHorrible ThingsUnethical
Author:Robert Greene
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“There are many persons ready to do what is right because in their hearts they know it is right. But they hesitate, waiting for theother fellow to make the first move--and he, in turn, waits for you. The minute a person whose word means a great deal dares to take the open- hearted and courageous way, many others follow. Not everyone can be turned aside from meanness and hatred, but the great majority of Americans is heading in that direction. I have a great belief in the future of my people and my country.”

PeopleKnowsWayFirstsHeartMeanPersonsCountryMovingTurnsBeliefWaitingDealsMinutesReadyMoralityHatredFellowsMajorityDareCivil RightsCourageousHeartedCivil Rights MovementHeadingsMeanness
Book:My Lord, what a Morning: An Autobiography
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“... when you make it a moral necessity for the young to dabble in all the subjects that the books on the top shelf are written about, you kill two very large birds with one stone: you satisfy precious curiosities, and you make them believe that they know as much about life as people who really know something. If college boys are solemnly advised to listen to lectures on prostitution, they will listen; and who is to blame if some time, in a less moral moment, they profit by their information?”

PeopleIfsKnowsBelieveTwoBookMomentsYoungSexMoralBoysWrittenSubjectsInformationYouthCollegeMoralityBirdStonesBlameCuriosityProfitShelvesLecturesProstitution
Author:Katharine Fullerton Gerould
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“Every religion I know of has changed its views with respect to concrete controversies over long periods of time. People's views about the morality of homosexuality are likely to undergo some change, even though they're making judgments based on their religious beliefs. Because in fact, religion is an extremely durable, and yet flexible, way of trying to apprehend what's good and what's bad in the world. In fact, its durability comes from its flexibility. Now, speaking from inside a religion, it's hard to talk that way.”

PeopleKnowsWorldWayTryingLongHardFactsBeliefReligiousViewsChangedPeriodsMoralityJudgmentConcreteHomosexualityFlexibilityFlexibleControversyReligious BeliefLong Periods Of TimeDurabilityBad In The World
Author:Jack Balkin
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“Great and good men and women stirred sugar into their coffee knowing that it had been picked by slaves. Kind, good ancestors of all of us never questioned hangings, burnings, tortures, inequality, suffering and injustice that today revolt us. If we dare to presume to damn them with our fleeting ideas of morality, then we risk damnation from our descendants for whatever it is that we are doing that future history will judge as intolerable and wicked: eating meat, driving cars, appearing on TV, visiting zoos, who knows?”

IfsKnowsMenKindIdeasTodaySufferingKnowingRiskCarJudgingTvsMoralityEatingMen And WomenSlaveInjusticeDareCoffeeDrivingInequalityBurningDamnMeatTortureWickedGood ManSugarAncestorFleetingRevoltVisitingAppearingDescendantsZoosDamnationEating MeatDriving Cars
Author:Stephen Fry
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“I would say I was a philosophical boy. Thoughts about 'identical stones' are the earliest philosophical thoughts I remember. But when I was a teenager I also thought about the more typical philosophical problems teenagers think about: the existence of god, the objectivity of morality, whether one can know that the external world exists.”

ThinkingKnowsWorldProblemRememberExistenceBoysMoralityStonesPhilosophicalTeenagerTypicalIdenticalObjectivityExistence Of God
Author:Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra
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“The ratings system is so bogus and people know it. Fewer and fewer people care. The ratings board has sort of exposed itself. But my problem is, as a parent, there's this area of film that my daughters want to see. They're not my kind of films, I don't want to go see them, but I really want to know whether my daughters can see them or not. The morality of what the ratings board is doing now escapes me. I don't get it.”

PeopleKnowsWantKindProblemCareFilmParentMoralityDaughterAreasBoardsMy DaughterExposedFewerRating
Author:William H. Macy
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“It's so hard to know what to do when one wishes earnestly to do right.”

KnowsHardWishMorality
Book:The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more
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“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.”

KnowsInspirationalRealCharacterBlackBusinessAttitudeKnowingVirtueHonestyPositiveHonorMoralityIntegrityEthicsArmyProductivityRight ThingVirtuousEncouragingDoing The Right ThingTruth And HonestyHonesty IntegrityTruth HonestyHonesty And IntegrityIntegrity And CharacterHonest And IntegrityIntegrity CharacterHonor And IntegrityTrust And RespectLeadership IntegrityTrust HonestyEthics And IntegrityTrust And HonestySpiritual Integrity
Author:Oprah Winfrey
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“Under the discipline of unity, knowledge and morality come together. No longer can we have that paltry 'objective' knowledge so prized by the academic specialists. To know anything at all becomes a moral predicament. Aware that there is no such thing as a specialized effect, one becomes responsible for judgments as well as facts. Aware that as an agricultural scientist he had 'one great subject,' Sir Albert Howard could no longer ask, What can I do with what I know? without at the same time asking, How can I be responsible for what I know?”

KnowsWellsFactsTogetherAsksMoralSubjectsEffectsDisciplineMoralityJudgmentScientistAskingResponsibleUnityObjectivesAcademicBeing ResponsibleSpecialistsPredicaments
Book:The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture
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“What do Americans know about morality? They don't want their presidents to have penises but they don't mind if their presidents covertly arrange to support the Nicaraguan rebel forces after Congress has restricted such aid; they don't want their presidents to deceive their wives but they don't mind if their presidents deceive Congress- lie to the people and violate the people's constitution!”

PeopleIfsKnowsWantMindLyingForcePresidentSupportWifeMoralityConstitutionCongressAidsRebelDeceiving
Book:A Prayer For Owen Meany
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“Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant.”

KnowsMenInspirationalHumansHas BeensValuesMoralProgressMoralityEthicsCurrentsPositive AtheismCertaintyCivilizedSkepticalSkepticInferiorityDoubtedHuman ProgressMoral ValuesUncivilized
Book:Minority Report
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“To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulne­ss while telling carefully constructe­d lies, to hold simultaneo­usly two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradict­ory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy.”

KnowsBelieveTwoUseLyingPartyOpinionKnowingDemocracyImpossibleHonestyMoralityIntegrityConsciousLogicClaimsCitizenshipGuardian
Book:Animal Farm and 1984
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