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Morality Quotes

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Morality Quotes

“Our conceptions of morality, as all our other ideas, pass through a course of development; the difficulty comes in adjusting our conduct, which has become hardened into customs and habits, to these changing moral conceptions. When this adjustment is not made, we suffer from the strain and indecision of believing one hypothesis and acting upon another.”

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Book:Democracy and Social Ethics
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“Modern technique has made it possible for leisure, within limits, to be not the prerogative of small privileged classes, but a right evenly distributed throughout the community. The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery.”

WorldNeedsMadeWisdomPoliticsCommunityClassEconomyModernMoralityLimitsSlaverySlaveTechniqueMade ItLiberalismLeisurePrivilegedModern WorldPrerogative
Book:In Praise of Idleness
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“A lot of what I've written in criticism of my lust for virtue - my discovery that I've committed idolatry, making of the good an idol - is open to the charge of being still caught within the dialectic of idolatry. I've made a moral criticism of my moral consciousness. Meta-idolatry.”

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Book:As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980
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“Although I'm not Christian, I was raised Christian. I'm an atheist, with a slight Buddhist leaning. I've got a very strong sense of morality - it's just a different morality than the loud voices of the Christian morality.... I can't tell you how many films I've turned down because there was an absence of morality. And I don't mean that from any sort of Judeo-Christian-Muslim point of view. I'm not saying they're wrong and can't be made. But, fundamentally, I'm such a humanist that I can't bear to make films that make us feel humanity is more dark than it is light.”

FeelsMeanMadeI CanDifferentLightChristianFilmHumanityStrongVoiceDarkViewsAtheismBearsMoralityRaisedAtheistPositive AtheismPoint Of ViewAbsenceBuddhistLoudHumanistVery StrongTurned DownChristian MoralityLoud Voices
Author:Rachel Griffiths
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“Christian morality (so called) has all the characters of a reaction.... In its horror of sensuality, it made an idol of asceticism, which has been gradually compromised away into one of legality. It holds out the hope of heaven and the threat of hell, as the appointed and appropriate motives to a virtuous life - in this falling far below the best of the ancients, and doing what lies in it to give to human morality an essentially selfish character.... It is essentially a doctrine of passive obedience; it inculcates submission to all authorities found established.”

GivingHumansHas BeensMadeCharacterChristianLyingFallFoundHeavenHellAtheismMoralityHorrorAuthorityThreatPositive AtheismSelfishReactionsDoctrineSensualityObedienceMotiveAppropriateIdolsVirtuousPassiveSubmissionAsceticismLegalityChristian MoralityVirtuous Life
Book:Utilitarianism, liberty, and representative government
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“Each man's private conscience ought to be a nice little self-registering thermometer: he ought to carry his moral code incorruptibly and explicitly within himself, and not care what the world thinks. The mass of human beings, however, are not made that way; and many people have been saved from crime or sin by the simple dislike of doing things they would not like to confess.”

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Book:Modes and Morals
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“I liked Bugs Bunny. He was pretty good. He's annoying as a duck and he's anti-proletarian. Daffy Duck I couldn't see what was going on with him. He seemed like he was angry about something. My favorite one though is Pinocchio. I liked that kid. He was made of wood. I liked that for a start. I also liked how he'd tell a lie and his nose would grow. I liked the morality of that.”

MadeKidsLyingGrowsMoralityAngryMy FavoriteWoodsNosesAnnoyingDucksBugsBunniesDaffy Duck
Author:Russell Brand
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“There can be no truly moral choice unless that choice is made in freedom; similarly, there can be no really firmly grounded and consistent defense of freedom unless that defense is rooted in moral principle. In concentrating on the ends of choice, the conservative, by neglecting the conditions of choice, loses that very morality of conduct with which he is so concerned. And the libertarian, by concentrating only on the means, or conditions, of choice and ignoring the ends, throws away an essential moral defense of his own position.”

MeanMadeEndsChoicesLosesFreedomResponsibilityLibertyMoralPrinciplesVirtueConditionsPositionIgnoranceMoralityEssentialsConcernedConservativeDefenseLibertarianConsistentNeglectRootedGroundedConcentratingMoral PrinciplesMoral Choices
Author:Murray Rothbard
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“The truth which has made us free will in the end make us glad also. Every outcry against the oppression of some people by other people, or against what is morally hideous is the affirmation of the principle that a human being as such is not to be violated. A human being is not to be handled as a tool but is to be respected and revered.”

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Author:Felix Adler
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“When the Congress first met, Mr. Cushing made a motion that it should be opened with prayer . . . Mr. Samuel Adams arose and said he was no bigot, and could hear a prayer from a gentleman of piety and virtue, who was at the same time a friend to his country. He . . . had heard that Mr. Duche . . . deserved that character and therefore he moved that Mr. Duche . . . might be desired to read prayers to the Congress . . . . After (he read several prayers), Mr. Duche, unexpected to everybody, struck out into an extemporary prayer, which filled the bosom of every man present.”

MenShouldFirstsMadeSaidCountryCharacterMightReligionPrayerVirtueHeardMoralityMetsMovedFilledCongressEvery ManGentlemanUnexpectedBosomsPietyBigots
Author:John Adams
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“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.”

MenFirstsMadeEvilSocialAnswersHonestBrokenMoralityBattleFirst TimeErrorsRationalParadoxIrrationalBorrowedHonest ManTransientEvil ManSocial PowerBorrowed Time
Author:Andrew Bernstein
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“Let's say somebody were [in the White House] and they wanted to destroy this nation. I would create division among the people, encourage a culture of ridicule for basic morality and the principles that made and sustained the country, undermine the financial stability of the nation, and weaken and destroy the military. It appears coincidentally that those are the very things that are happening right now.”

PeopleMadeCountryWantedCultureHouseNationsWhitePrinciplesMilitaryMoralityRight NowHappeningsFinancialDivisionWhite HouseStabilityRidiculeFinancial Stability
Author:Benjamin Carson
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“Morality has in the past made progress when we broadened the category of things we weren't permitted to harm (animals, 'infidels'); saw through some delusions and rationalisations about what harms are good for people themselves (prison punishment, hysterectomies for unhappy 1950s wives); and readjusted our for-the-good of others criteria so as to demand only reasonable sacrifices (ceasing to use children as handy chimney sweeps).”

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Author:Catherine Wilson
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“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

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Book:Works: with a life of the author
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“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.”

GivingShouldHumansMadeImportantActionForceSoundExistenceConsciousnessClearDoubtDependsBalanceMoralityAuthorityJudgmentDignityTasksFoundationStriveMythDependentEndeavorTiedOur ActionsLegitimacySound Judgment
Book:Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives
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“Yes, yes, I see it all! — an enormous social activity, a mighty civilization, a profuseness of science, of art, of industry, of morality, and afterwords, when we have filled the world with industrial marvels, with great factories, with roads, museums and libraries, we shall fall exhausted at the foot of it all, and it will subsist — for whom? Was man made for science or was science made for man?”

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Book:Tragic Sense of Life
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“If laws were real they wouldn’t need to be enforced, because if they were real they couldn’t be broken. Try breaking the law of gravity. Now that’s a law. Laws made by man are rules reflecting the current status of his moral codes. As he alters and whittles away his morality, casting bits and pieces aside, his codes change to reflect it.”

IfsMenNeedsTryingMadeRealLawBitsMoralPiecesBrokenMoralityCurrentsLawyerCodeGravityCastingReflectingBits And PiecesMoral CodeBreaking The Law
Author:Boyd Rice
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“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people... it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

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Author:John Quincy Adams
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“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.”

ShouldMadeGodActionSoundReligiousDoubtAtheismMoralityAuthorityJudgmentEthicsFoundationAtheistMythTheologyDependentTiedAtheisticLegitimacySound Judgment
Book:Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives
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“There never was a strong character that was not made strong by discipline of the will; there never was a strong people that did not rank subordination and discipline among the signal virtues. Subjection to moods is the mark of a deteriorating morality. There is no baser servitude than that of the man whose caprices are his masters, and a nation composed of such men could not long preserve its liberties.”

PeopleMenLongMadeCharacterStrongNationsLibertyVirtueHe ManMastersDisciplineMoralityMarkMoodPreservesSignalsServitudeCapriceSubjectionSubordinationStrong PeopleStrong CharacterDeteriorating
Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“In every age he had ever studied, doomsayers abounded. No millennium is attractive to the man immured in it; enough prophecies have been made in antiquity that one who desires, in any age, to take the position that apocalypse is at hand can easily defend it. He would not join that dour order; he would not worry about anything but Tempus, and the matter awaiting his attention.”

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Book:Tempus with His Right-Side Companion Niko
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“Whatever the reason, for most of the present century, the literature and publicity of the old established [animal welfare] groups made a significant contribution to the prevailing attitude that dogs and cats and wild animals need protection, but other animals do not. Thus people came to think of "animal welfare" as something for kindly ladies who are dotty about cats, and not as a cause founded on basic principles of justice and morality.”

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Author:Peter Singer
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“The natural sciences are sometimes said to have no concern with values, nor to seek morality and goodness, and therefore belong to an inferior order of things. Counter-claims are made that they are the only living and dynamic studies... Both contentions are wrong. Language, Literature and Philosophy express, reflect and contemplate the world. But it is a world in which men will never be content to stay at rest, and so these disciplines cannot be cut off from the great searching into the nature of things without being deprived of life-blood.”

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Author:Cyril Norman Hinshelwood
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“Zen's greatest contribution is to give you an alternative to the serious man. The serious man has made the world, the serious man has made all the religions. He has created all the philosophies, all the cultures, all the moralities; everything that exists around you is a creation of the serious man. Zen has dropped out of the serious world. It has created a world of its own which is very playful, full of laughter, where even great masters behave like children.”

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Author:Rajneesh
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“The dilemma of our age is the combination of unprecedented material progress and systematic spiritual decline. The decline in public and private morality can be witnessed in the marketplace as well as the forums of international diplomacy. In the past, a man's honor and reputation were his most valuable assets. Business agreements were made with a handshake. Today one might be well advised to check the "bottom line" and read the "small print."”

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Author:King Hussein I
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“The character of Anglo-American civilization . . . is the product . . . of two perfectly distinct elements that elsewhere have often made war with each other, but which, in America, they have succeeded in incorporating somehow into one another and combining marvelously. I mean to speak of the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom.”

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Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
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“Realising the healthy international relations can be created only among populations made up of individuals who themselves are healthy and enjoy a measure a independence, the United Nations elaborated a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on December 10, 1948.”

HumansMadeIndividualNationsEnjoyUnitedRightsMoralityHealthyUniversalRelationIndependenceInternationalHuman RightsPopulationRealisingDeclarationUnited NationsAdoptedAssemblyInternational RelationsDecemberGeneral AssemblyDeclaration Of Human Rights
Book:Ideas and Opinions
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“Posterity has never made the grave's embrace less cruel. It simply assuages our fear of death, because there is no better cure for out inevitable morality then the illusion of a beautiful eternity. But there is one illusion I still hold dear: that is the thought of an enlightened nation. That is the only future I still dream of.”

MadeStillsDreamBeautifulNationsMoralityIllusionEternityEmbraceDearGravesCuresInevitableEnlightenedFear Of DeathPosterity
Author:Yasmina Khadra
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“Today courts wrongly interpret separation of church and state to mean that religion has no place in the public arena, or that morality derived from religion should not be permitted to shape our laws. Somehow freedom for religious expression has become freedom from religious expression. Secularists want to empty the public square of religion and religious-based morality so they can monopolize the shared space of society with their own views. In the process they have made religious believers into second-class citizens.”

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Book:What's So Great About Christianity
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“The State, on the other hand, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing.”

MayMadeIdeasStatesIndividualSocialDifficultNaturalJusticeCommonRightsMoralityAdvantageIntentionAccessPrimariesGrantsGenesisNatural RightsAnti Social
Author:Albert J. Nock
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