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Morality Quotes

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Morality Quotes

“We can hardly say that the Pharisees had an accurate ‘knowledge’ of man when they pointed to the sins (the real sins) of publicans and sinners. This judgment, which separated knowledge of man from self-knowledge, was as nothing in God’s eyes. The Jew did not have a better understanding because he was able to judge the heathen. In the sphere of abstract morality this could possibly be said, but this is not Biblical morality - O man, who judgest others!”

MenSaidRealSelfEyeAbleUnderstandingSinJudgingMoralityJudgmentJewAbstractSinnerSpheresAccurateBiblicalSelf KnowledgeHeathenPharisees
Book:Man: The Image of God
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“When one gives up the Christian faith, one pulls the right to Christian morality out from under one's feet. This morality is by no means self-evident. Christianity is a system, a whole view of things thought out together. By breaking one main concept out of it, the faith in God, one breaks the whole. It stands or falls with faith in God.”

GivingMeanSelfWholeChristianTogetherFallViewsChristianityBreakFeetMoralityGiving UpConceptsFaith In GodEvidentChristian FaithChristian Morality
Book:Twilight of the Idols
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“What [Nietzsche] calls slave morality is to him purely spite-morality; and this spite-morality gave new names to all ideals. Thus impotence, which offers no reprisal, became goodness; craven baseness became humility; submission to him who was feared became obedience; inability to assert one's self became reluctance to assert one's self, became forgiveness, love of one's enemies. Misery became a distinction”

SelfNamesEnemyHumilityMoralityOffersGoodnessIdealsMiserySlaveObedienceSpiteDistinctionSubmissionInabilityImpotenceReluctanceBasenessForgiveness LoveReprisal
Book:Friedrich Nietzsche (English Edition)
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“The relations between parents and children are certainly not only those of constraint. There is spontaneous mutual affection, which from the first prompts the child to acts of generosity and even of self-sacrifice, to very touching demonstrations which are in no way prescribed. And here no doubt is the starting point for that morality of good which we shall see developing alongside of the morality of right or duty, and which in some persons completely replaces it.”

WayFirstsChildrenPersonsSelfParentDoubtSacrificeDutyMoralityRelationStartingAffectionDevelopingGenerosityNo DoubtMutualTouchingSpontaneousDemonstrationConstraintsSelf SacrificeStarting PointPromptsChildren And Parents
Book:The Moral Judgement of the Child
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“For as long as men and women have talked about war, they have talked about it in terms of right and wrong. And for almost as long, some among them have derided such talk, called it a charade, insisted that war lies beyond (or beneath) moral judgment. War is a world apart, where life itself is at stake, where human nature is reduced to its elemental forms, where self-interest and necessity prevail. Here men and women do what they must to save themselves and their communities, and morality and law have no place. Inter arma silent leges: in time of war the law is silent.”

MenWorldHumansLongWarSelfFormLawLyingTermInterestCommunityMoralHuman NatureMoralityJudgmentMen And WomenSilentStakesSelf InterestElementalsMoral JudgmentCharadesWorlds Apart
Book:Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations
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“Mass democracy, mass morality and the mass media thrive independently of the individual, who joins them only at the cost of at least a partial perversion of his instincts and insights. He pays for his social ease with what used to be called his soul - his discriminations, his uniqueness, his psychic energy, his self.”

SoulSelfUsedIndividualEnergySocialPayDemocracyMediaMoralityCostMassInstinctInsightDiscriminationUsed To BeEaseThriveUniquenessPsychicsPerversionMass Media
Book:The Savage God: A Study of Suicide
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“This is the very heart of true morality--not to struggle, not to fight with any weapons, for one's self alone--but to struggle and to fight for the common interest, to wield the power of brain and good right arm if need be for one's family, for the ordered community of life, for the state, for moral principles, humanity, and the common good.”

IfsNeedsHeartSelfStatesHumanityFightingInterestCommunityCommonBrainMoralPrinciplesStruggleArmsMoralityWeaponsCommon GoodMoral PrinciplesCommon Interests
Author:Joseph Alexander Leighton
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“Through inculcating the notion that sacrifice is a virtue, Christianity has succeeded in convincing many people that misery incurred through sacrifice is a mark of virtue. Pain becomes the inignia of morality - and conversely, pleasure becomes the insignia of immorality. Christianity, therefore, does not say, "Go forth and be miserable." Rather, it says, "Go forth and practice the virtue of self-sacrifice." In practical terms, these commands are identical.”

PeopleDoeSelfPainTermPleasureChristianityPracticeVirtueSacrificeAtheismMoralityMarkMiseryNotionPositive AtheismPracticalsCommandMiserableConvincingIdenticalSelf SacrificeImmorality
Author:George H. Smith
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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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“It is easy enough to say, Be true to your values. But what if your values are irrational? Or what if the virtues you have committed yourself to are so much against human nature that they cannot be practiced consistently? Be careful of what you accept as your code of morality. Think carefully about whether its tenets serve your life and well being. Exercise critical judgment. Realize how much is at stake-your life, your happiness, your self-esteem.”

IfsThinkingHumansWellsSelfEnoughValuesEasyRealizingAcceptingVirtueHuman NatureSelf EsteemMoralityExerciseJudgmentCommittedCarefulCriticalEsteemBeing TrueWell BeingCodeWhat IfStakesBe CarefulConsistentlyIrrational
Author:Nathaniel Branden
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“A sense of self has to be sought in the parade of images and products; and this culture becomes the main determinant upon morality, beliefs, and purpose, usurping more and more territory that formerly belonged to parents, teachers, community, priests, and politics alike.”

SelfPurposeCultureBeliefParentCommunityTeacherProductsMoralityPriestsTerritoryConsumerismSense Of SelfParadesOverconsumption
Book:What Went Wrong?: Why Hasn't Having More Made People Happier?
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“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.”

IdeasSelfAmericaChoicesEvilChanceQualityLibertyMoralFateObjectsMoralityCapableIntellectualDefinitionsAgentsAttributesIndifferentMetaphysicsImmoral
Book:The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections
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“The Christian religion and morality extols the glory of the Hereafter, and therefore remains indifferent to the horrors of the earth. Indeed, the idea of self-denial and of all that makes for pain and sorrow is its test of human worth, its passport to the entry into heaven.”

HumansIdeasSelfEarthChristianPainHeavenMoralitySorrowHorrorGloryTestsRemainsDenialIndifferentWorth ItHereafterEntryPassportsSelf-denialPain And Sorrow
Book:Victims of Morality, and The Failure of Christianity: Two Lectures
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“Here I encounter the most popular fallacy of our times. It is not considered sufficient that the law should guarantee to every citizen the free and inoffensive use of his faculties for physical, intellectual and moral self-improvement. Instead, it is demanded that the law should directly extend welfare, education, and morality throughout the nation. This is the seductive lure of socialism. And I repeat: these two uses of the law are in direct contradiction to each other.”

ShouldTwoSelfUseLawNationsMoralCitizensMoralityIntellectualSelf ImprovementDirectImprovementSocialismWelfareSufficientOur TimeRepeatsEncountersGuaranteesContradictionFacultySeductiveFallacyLure
Book:The Law
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“All women are brought up from the very earliest years in the belief that their ideal of character is the very opposite to that of men; not self-will, and government by self-control, but submission and yielding to the control of others. All the moralities tell them that it is their nature to live for others; to make complete abnegation of themselves, and to have no life but in their affections.”

MenYearsSelfCharacterGovernmentBeliefMoralityIdealsOppositesAffectionSelf ControlSubmissionSelf WillAbnegationLive For Others
Book:The Subjection of Women
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“It has been an obsession of human beings to create a hierarchy that places the human species on top and lumps all the "other animals" together beneath us. The resulting "speciesism" allows us to look upon animals as less deserving of all manner of rights and considerations than humans. To support this lower status, humans have argued that animals act instinctually; don't have souls; don't feel physical pain like we do; and lack self-consciousness, cognitive intelligence, emotional feelings, morality, and ethics.”

FeelsHumansLooksHas BeensSoulSelfFeelingsPainTogetherHuman BeingsAnimalConsciousnessSupportRightsEmotionalMoralityEthicsSpeciesObsessionLook UpConsiderationHierarchyDeservingCognitiveLumpsSelf ConsciousnessHuman SpeciesPhysical PainSpeciesismMorality And Ethics
Author:Sharon Gannon
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“Leadership consists not in degrees of technique but in traits of character; it requires moral rather than athletic or intellectual effort, and it imposes on both leader and follower alike the burdens of self-restraint.”

SelfCharacterLeadershipEffortLeaderMoralMoralityIntegrityDegreesIntellectualBurdenTechniqueFollowersTraitsRestraintAthleticGreat LeaderBeing A LeaderSelf RestraintFuture LeadersIntegrity And CharacterIntegrity CharacterMoral IntegrityMoral Leadership
Book:High Technology and Human Freedom
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“Conservatism vests in and depends on the widespread, informed understanding of human nature, self-governance and the First Principle of Progress: free people interacting in free markets produce the greatest good for the greatest number always, but only, when tethered to virtue and morality.”

PeopleFirstsHumansSelfUnderstandingNumbersPrinciplesVirtueProgressHuman NatureProduceDependsMoralityFree MarketGovernanceConservatismInteractingVests
Author:Mary Matalin
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“Those moralists, on the other hand, who, following in the footsteps of Socrates, offer the individual a morality of self-control and temperance as a means to his own advantage, as his personal key to happiness, are the exceptions.”

MeanSelfHandsIndividualKeysMoralityOffersAdvantageFollowingExceptionSelf ControlFootstepsTemperanceMoralistKey To Happiness
Book:Nietzsche: 'On the Genealogy of Morality' and Other Writings Student Edition
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“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.”

SaidSelfEvilIndividualNovelIssuesMoralityComplicatedSensesFixedComplexityGood And EvilRighteousnessFormulasSensitivityAdulteryFidelitySelf RighteousSelf RighteousnessTehranGreat Novels
Book:Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
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“Man—every man—is an end in himself, not a means to the ends of others; he must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself; he must work for his rational self-interest, with the achievement of his own happiness as the highest moral purpose of his life.”

MenInspirationalMeanEndsSelfPurposeReligionInterestLibertyMoralSacrificeMoralityAchievementHighestSakeEvery ManRationalSelf Interest
Book:Ayn Rand Novel Collection
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“A troubled and afflicted mankind looks to us, pleading for us to keep our rendezvous with destiny; that we will uphold the principles of self-reliance, self-discipline, morality, and - above all - responsible liberty for every individual that we will become that shining city on a hill.”

LooksSelfIndividualCitiesLibertyPrinciplesDestinyMankindDisciplineMoralityResponsibleShiningHillsSelf DisciplineSelf RelianceReliancePleadingRendezvous
Author:Ronald Reagan
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“Anarchism, to me, means not only the denial of authority, not only a new economy, but a revision of the principles of morality. It means the development of the individual as well as the assertion of the individual. It means self-responsibility, and not leader worship.”

WellsMeanSelfIndividualResponsibilityLeaderPrinciplesEconomyDevelopmentMoralityAuthorityWorshipDenialAnarchyAnarchismAnarchistPersonal ResponsibilityAssertionRevisionSelf Responsibility
Book:Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre -- Anarchist, Feminist, Genius
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“... suffering does not ennoble. It destroys. To resist destruction, self-hatred, or lifelong hopelessness, we have to throw off the conditioning of being despised, the fear of becoming the they that is talked about so dismissively, to refuse lying myths and easy moralities, to see ourselves as human, flawed, and extraordinary. All of us extraordinary”

HumansDoeSelfLyingSufferingEasyBecomingMoralityDestructionHatredExtraordinaryRefuseMythHopelessnessFlawedLifelongConditioningDespisedSelf Hatred
Book:Skin: Talking About Sex, Class, and Literature
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