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Quotes about morality

501 quotes from 241 people

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No one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy.
Herbert Spencer1820–1903Social Statics (1851), Pt. IV, Ch. 30: General Considerations
- Freedom
- Happiness
If technical progress is not matched by corresponding progress in man’s ethical formation, in man’s inner growth, then it is not progress at all, but a threat for man and for the world.
Pope Benedict XVI1927–2022Spe Salvi, encyclical, sec. 22 (30 November 2007)
- Technology
If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces.
William Shakespeare1564–1616The Merchant of Venice (1596–7), Act I, scene ii.In context
A story with a moral appended is like the bill of a mosquito. It bores you, and then injects a stinging drop to irritate your conscience.
O. Henry1862–1910Strictly Business (1910)
- Writing
As it is necessary not to invite robbery by supineness, so it is our duty not to suppress tenderness by suspicion; it is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784The Rambler (1750–1752), No. 79 (18 December 1750)
Those who understand evil pardon it.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950Maxims for Revolutionists (1903), #167
- Forgiveness
- Good & Evil
There is evil! It’s actual, like cement.
Philip K. Dick1928–1982The Man in the High Castle (1962)
- Good & Evil
Morality is herd instinct in the individual.
Friedrich Nietzsche1844–1900The Gay Science (1882), Sec. 116
Prosperity is the best protector of principle.
Mark Twain1835–1910Following the Equator (1897), Ch. 38, Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar.
- Money
Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil.
Thomas Mann1875–1955The Magic Mountain (1924), Ch. 6, section, A Good Soldier as translated by Woods (1996), p. 506
- Good & Evil
All things truly wicked start from an innocence.
Ernest Hemingway1899–1961A Moveable Feast (1964), Ch. 20
- Good & Evil
In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics.
Earl Warren1891–1974Speech at the Louis Marshall Award Dinner of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Americana Hotel, New York City (11 November 1962)
- Laws
There is no evil in the atom, only in men’s souls.
Adlai Stevenson II1900–1965Speech in Hartford, Connecticut (18 September 1952)
- Good & Evil
- Science
Malice is of a low Stature, but it hath very long Arms.
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax1633–1695Political Thoughts and Reflections
- Good & Evil
Often an entire city has suffered because of an evil man.
Hesiod776–700 BCWorks and Days (c. 700 BC), Line 240
- Good & Evil