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Quotes about morality

501 quotes from 241 people

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All sin tends to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is what is called damnation.
W. H. Auden1907–1973A Certain World: A Commonplace Book (1970), “Hell”
- Religion
Do not do unto others as you would expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950Maxims for Revolutionists (1903), #1
- Comedy
How could man have such utter contempt for man? Because he had reached the point of contempt for God.
Pope John Paul II1920–2005Speech delivered at the Yad Vashem Museum at Jerusalem, Israel—March 23, 2000
- God
- Good & Evil
It is not because men’s desires are strong that they act ill; it is because their consciences are weak.
John Stuart Mill1806–1873On Liberty (1859)In context
You may either win your peace, or buy it:⁠—win it, by resistance to evil;⁠—buy it, by compromise with evil.
John Ruskin1819–1900The Two Paths (1859)
- Good & Evil
The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Sceptical Essays (1928), Ch. 1: The Value of Scepticism
- Anti-Religion
Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for co-operation with oneself.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (1918), Ch. 6: On the Scientific Method in Philosophy
Stand with anybody that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong.
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865Speech at Peoria, Illinois (1854)
Errors of knowledge are not breaches of morality; no proper moral code can demand infallibility or omniscience.
Ayn Rand1905–1982The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)
- Knowledge
The degree of civilization which a people has reached, no doubt, is marked by their anxiety to do as they would be done by.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935The Common Law (1881), Lecture II, p. 44
We too often forget that not only is there “a soul of goodness in things evil,” but very generally also, a soul of truth in things erroneous.
Herbert Spencer1820–1903First Principles (1862), Pt. I, The Unknowable
- Good & Evil
- Truth & Lies
But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
Isaiah766–686 BCThe Book of Isaiah (c. 800–500 B.C.), 57:20-21, King James Version
- Good & Evil
To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.
Albert Einstein1879–1955What I Believe (1930)
- Happiness
The salvation of the world depends on the men who will not take evil good-humouredly, and whose laughter destroys the fool instead of encouraging him.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950Quintessence Of Ibsenism (1891; 1913)
- Good & Evil
- Laughter
A drug is not bad. A drug is a chemical compound. The problem comes in when people who take drugs treat them like a license to behave like an asshole.
Frank Zappa1940–1993The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989)
- Comedy