Quotes about morality
501 quotes from 241 people
Martin Amis1949–2023Novelists in Interview (1985) edited by John Haffenden
Graham Greene1904–1991The Observer (London, January 2, 1983)
Mae West1893–1980I’m No Angel (1933)The moral principle of revolutions is to instruct, not to destroy.
Thomas Paine1737–1809First Principles of Government (1795)State interference is an evil, where it cannot be shown to be a good.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935The Common Law (1881), pp. 88-96To-day we have fewer dogmas, but I think that we have stronger principles.
John Buchan1875–1940“A University’s Bequest to Youth” (10 October 1936)The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer1906–1945“After Ten Years” (Christmas 1942), in Letters and Papers from PrisonI never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.
Jonathan Swift1667–1745Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)‘Tis very strange Men should be so fond of being thought wickeder than they are.
Daniel Defoe1660–1731A System of Magick (1726).Nothing but the most exemplary morals can give dignity to a man of small fortune.
Adam Smith1723–1790The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book V, Chapter I, Part III, Article III, p. 874.Ethics is in its unqualified form extended responsibility to everything that has life.
Albert Schweitzer1875–1965Kulturphilosophie (1923), Vol. 2: Civilization and EthicsThe best of men cannot suspend their fate:
The good die early, and the bad die late.Daniel Defoe1660–1731The Character of the Late Dr. Samuel Annesley, by Way of Elegy (1697)There cannot any one moral Rule be propos’d, whereof a Man may not justly demand a Reason.
John Locke1632–1704An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), Book I, Ch. 3, sec. 4It has always been easy to hate and destroy. To build and to cherish is much more difficult.
Elizabeth II1926–20221957 Christmas Broadcast; quoted on royal website (25 December 1957)The root of a nation’s misfortunes has to be sought in the moral failings of the government.
Aung San Suu Kyiborn 1945In Quest of Democracy (1991)