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Quotes about morality

501 quotes from 241 people

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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
One must have faith in the best in men and distrust the worst. One must allow the best to be shown so that it reveals and prevails over the worst.
José Martí1853–1895Our America (1891)
- Good & Evil
In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which.
George R. R. Martinborn 1948infinity plus interview (2001)
- Good & Evil
The battle between good and evil is a legitimate theme for a Fantasy (or for any work of fiction, for that matter), but in real life that battle is fought chiefly in the individual human heart.
George R. R. Martinborn 1948infinity plus interview (2001)
- Good & Evil
- Writing
Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner.
W. Somerset Maugham1874–1965Of Human Bondage (1915), Chapter LIIIIn context
- Advice
I don’t think goodness is something that you learn. If you’re left adrift in the world to learn goodness from it, you would be in trouble.
Cormac McCarthy1933–2023The Wall Street Journal, November 20, 2009, “Hollywood’s Favorite Cowboy” by John Jurgensen
- Good & Evil
Confession is good for the conscience, but it usually bypasses the soul.
MMMignon McLaughlin1913–1983The Complete Neurotic’s Notebook (1981)
We’re not all alike but we can all like each other.
JMJason Mechalek
All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick.
Herman Melville1819–1891Moby-Dick (1851), Chapter XLIIn context
- Good & Evil
The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956Prejudices, Fourth Series, ch. 11 (1924)
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
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
To do as one would be done by, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality.
John Stuart Mill1806–1873Utilitarianism (1861), Ch. 2
Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.
John Stuart Mill1806–1873Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St. Andrews, Feb. 1st 1867 (1867) p. 36.
- Good & Evil
- Responsibility
The concentration camp is the final expression of human separateness and its ultimate consequence. It is organized abandonment.
Arthur Miller1915–2005Paris Review (Summer 1966)
- Good & Evil