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Quotes about morality

501 quotes from 241 people

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I ask you, what am I? I’m one of the undeserving poor: that’s what I am. Think of what that means to a man.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950Pygmalion (1912), Act II, spoken by DoolittleIn context
- Money
Abashed the Devil stood,
And felt how awful goodness is, and saw
Virtue in her shape how lovely
John Milton1608–1674Paradise Lost (1667), Book IVIn context
- Good & Evil
- Virtue
Time drives everything before it, and is able to bring with it good as well as evil, and evil as well as good.
Niccolò Machiavelli1469–1527The Prince (1532), Chapter IIIIn context
- Good & Evil
- Time
The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Walden (1854), Economy (1 of 3)In context
- Virtue
Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then?
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- Laws
It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think right.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- Laws
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water’d heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
William Blake1757–1827The Tyger (1794)In context
- God
- Good & Evil
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
W. B. Yeats1865–1939The Second Coming (1920)In context
- Character
- Good & Evil
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
W. B. Yeats1865–1939The Second Coming (1920)In context
- Good & Evil
- Religion
The devil’s agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?
Arthur Conan Doyle1859–1930The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), Chapter 3In context
- Good & Evil
I counsel you by way of caution to forbear from crossing the moor in those dark hours when the powers of evil are exalted.
Arthur Conan Doyle1859–1930The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), Chapter 2In context
- Advice
- Good & Evil
Of evils current upon earth
The worst is money. Money ’tis that sacks
Cities, and drives men forth from hearth and home;
Warps and seduces native innocence,
And breeds a habit of dishonesty.
Sophocles496–406 BCAntigone (c. 441 BC), spoken by CreonIn context
- Good & Evil
- Money
Nor did I deem that thou, a mortal man,
Could’st by a breath annul and override
The immutable unwritten laws of Heaven.
They were not born today nor yesterday;
They die not; and none knoweth whence they sprang.
Sophocles496–406 BCAntigone (c. 441 BC), spoken by AntigoneIn context
- Justice
- Laws
A good man, through obscurest aspiration,
Has still an instinct of the one true way.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1749–1832Faust (1808), Prologue in Heaven, spoken by The LordIn context
- Character
- Good & Evil
Part of that Power, not understood,
Which always wills the Bad, and always works the Good.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1749–1832Faust (1808), Scene III, spoken by MephistophelesIn context
- Good & Evil