Quotes about morality
501 quotes from 241 people
The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47, 52 (3 March 1919).
Augustine of Hippo354–430Opera Omnia, Vol II. Col. 962, letter 211
Seneca the Younger5 BC–AD 65Hercules Furens (The Madness of Hercules), lines 251-253; (Amphitryon)
James Baldwin1924–1987“The Black Boy Looks at the White Boy”
Aleister Crowley1875–1947The Book of the Law (1904)God seeks comrades and claims love,
the Devil seeks slaves and claims obedience.
Rabindranath Tagore1861–1941Fireflies (1928), 25
Robert Burns1759–1796Man was Made to Mourn, st. 7 (1786)
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Under Western Eyes (1911), Pt. II, ch. 4There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
What’s done we partly may compute,
But know not what’s resisted.Robert Burns1759–1796Address to the Unco Guid, st. 8 (1786)The finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist.
Charles Baudelaire1821–1867“Le Joueur généreux” (1864), in Le Spleen de Paris
Milan Kundera1929–2023The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Pt. 7, ch. 2
John Calvin1509–1564Institutes of the Christian Religion, Prefatory Address to King Francis I, p. 23
Immanuel Kant1724–1804Critique of Practical Reason (1788)
