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Quotes about morality

501 quotes from 241 people

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I am the Spirit that Denies!
And justly so: for all things, from the Void
Called forth, deserve to be destroyed:
’Twere better, then, were naught created.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1749–1832Faust (1808), Scene III, spoken by MephistophelesIn context
- Good & Evil
Murder most foul, as in the best it is;
But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Hamlet (c. 1600), Act I, Scene V, spoken by GhostIn context
- Good & Evil
We do not look in great cities for our best morality.
Jane Austen1775–1817Mansfield Park (1814), Chapter IXIn context
The world seems full of good men⁠—even if there are monsters in it.
Bram Stoker1847–1912Dracula (1897), Chapter XVIIIn context
- Good & Evil
The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), The PrefaceIn context
- Art
Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man’s face. It cannot be concealed. People talk sometimes of secret vices. There are no such things. If a wretched man has a vice, it shows itself in the lines of his mouth, the droop of his eyelids, the moulding of his hands even.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter XIIIn context
All evils are to be considered with the good that is in them, and with what worse attends them.
Daniel Defoe1660–1731Robinson Crusoe (1719), Chapter IVIn context
- Good & Evil
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Macbeth (c. 1606), Act III, Scene II, spoken by MacbethIn context
- Good & Evil
All nature is but art unknown to thee;
All chance direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord harmony not understood;
All partial evil universal good;
And, spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,
One truth is clear, ‘Whatever is, is right.
Alexander Pope1688–1744An Essay on Man (1733–1734), Epistle IIn context
- Good & Evil
- Philosophy
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Measure for Measure (c. 1604), Act II, Scene I, spoken by EscalusIn context
- Good & Evil
- Virtue
For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears.
Walter Scott1771–1832Ivanhoe (1819), Chapter XXXIIIIn context
- Good & Evil
- Power
The yoke a man creates for himself by wrong-doing will breed hate in the kindliest nature
George Eliot1819–1880Silas Marner (1861), Part I, Chapter IIIIn context
- Good & Evil
Cruelty is the law pervading all nature and society; and we can’t get out of it if we would!
Thomas Hardy1840–1928Jude the Obscure (1895), Part Fifth: At Aldbrickham and Elsewhere, Chapter VIIIIn context
- Good & Evil
- Nature
Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner.
W. Somerset Maugham1874–1965Of Human Bondage (1915), Chapter LIIIIn context
- Advice
I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first.
Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894Kidnapped (1886), Chapter XIVIn context
- Good & Evil
- Wisdom