When you etch your moral code in stone, you have no room for editing. You leave open the possibility that, as our ethical views evolve, your code becomes less relevant. You could find yourself with...

We did an evil thing, father.””What do you think war is? We’re men. Not boys swinging sticks at each other and pronouncing the evil wizard’s defeat. We do what duty and honor demand, and often...

You must be willing to protect yourself and what you cherish. No matter the cost.

I had a dream about you. I think we made love, but I can’t be certain because the scenes were censored by the Moral Authorities. The thing that pisses me off is my grocery list...

Humans do not simply, innocently, and honestly disagree with each other about the good, the just, the right, the principles and applications of moral distinction and valuation, for they are already caught, like it or...

Is there anyone that thinks this girl is doing something wrong?” Not one person raised their hand.

Many of the innovations in science and philosophy have come from unbelievers, some of whom died for their ‘unbeliefs.’ Without unbelief, we might well be living in the Dark Ages or at least in the...

I was not much afraid of punishment, I was only afraid of disgrace.But that I feared more than death, more than crime, more than anything in the world. I should have rejoiced if the earth...

Chabrias, ever preoccupied to offer the gods the worship due them, was disturbed by the progress of sects of this kind among the populace of large cities; he feared for the welfare of our ancient...

A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is...

I wrote Unwind for lots of reasons, and it poses questions about alot of subjects. To state it briefly, I wanted to point out how when peopletake intractable positions on an issue, and stick to...

I once heard someone say morality was method. Do you hold with that? I suppose you wouldn’t. You would say that morality was vested in the aim, I expect. Difficult to know what one’s aims...

A man should always have these two rules in readiness. First, to do only what the reason of your ruling and legislating faculties suggest for the service of man. Second, to change your opinion whenever...

This was another of our fears: that Life wouldn’t turn out to be like Literature. Look at our parents–were they the stuff of Literature? At best, they might aspire to the condition of onlookers and...

Life is a manifestation of the fundamental laws of physics, and in its highest form, life manifests the fundamental laws of physics as a human organism endowed with a capacity for moral judgement.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.

I have attended church regularly since I was less than a week old. I’ve listened to sermons about virtue, sermons against vice. I have heard about money, time management, tithing, abstinence, and generosity. I’ve listened...

Do you really mean to tell me the only reason you try to be good is to gain God’s approval and reward, or to avoid his disapproval and punishment? That’s not morality, that’s just sucking...

When Republicans recently charged the President with promoting ‘class warfare,’ he answered it was ‘just math.’ But it’s more than math. It’s a matter of morality.Republicans have posed the deepest moral question of any society:...

To paraphrase Lucretius, there’s nothing more useful than to watch a man or woman in times of contagious deadly disease peril combined with his or her assumptions of financial adversity to discern what kind of...

Because that’s life, you know? Good and bad. You can’t have one without the other. The bad brings out the good in us, and the good can be corrupted by the bad. It’s always a...

She tried to argue, and tell him that he had mixed in his dull brain two matters, theology and morals, which in the primitive days of mankind had been quite distinct.

I have done many impious things–no great ruler can do otherwise. I have put the good of the Empire before all human considerations. To keep the Empire free from factions I have had to commit...

Thinking that morality is all about commandments is a relatively new way of thinking, since the Reformation.

Bad and cruel as our people were treated by the whites, not one of themwas hurt or molested by our band. (…) The whites were complaining at the same time that we were intruding upontheir...

How is it possible that suffering that is neither my own nor of my concern should immediately affect me as though it were my own, and with such force that is moves me to action?

Innocence still lives within our hearts and the child within each of us knows right from wrong.

Never try to do anything that is outside of who you are. A forced smile is a sign of what feels wrong in your heart, so recognize it when it happens. Living a lie will...

Morality in the general is well enough known by men, but the particular refinements of virtue are unknown by most persons; thus the majority of parents, without knowing it and without intending it, give very...

It is almost systematically to constitute a natural moral law. Nature has no principles. She furnishes us with no reason to believe that human life is to be respected. Nature, in her indifference, makes no...

But the Dark cannot claim what Light does not surrender.

There may be some truth (atheists) do not need to believe in a god to be good, but then if they do not believe in a god, who do they believe gives the Universal Law...

It is often argued that religion is valuable because it makes men good, but even if this were true it would not be a proof that religion is true. That would be an extension of...

La conscience morale de l’humanité progresse, lentement mais sûrement…

From the beginning, from the age of Adam to the time of kingship: from the powerful, pardon: from the poor, sins.

Dove la moralità è troppo forte l’intelletto perisce.

When mores are sufficient, laws are unnecessary; when mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable.

In fine, that it is not enough to be good, without behaving in such a manner as shall make others acknowledge us to be so.

The modern mind is like the eye of a man who is too tired to see the difference between blue and green. It fails in the quality that is truly called distinction; and,being incapable of...

We do not look in our great cities for our best morality.

Histories of morality are rarely written in order to inform the reader.

Morals; the pathetic answer to authoritySeen two gorillas sharing a banana?

Above all else, above the mechanics, even, a doctor should be thoroughly grounded in morality.

It’s like the frog that tried to outdo the cow…see, the consequences are reflected in each of us as individuals. A people so oppressed by the West have no mental leisure, they can’t do anything...

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse. When a people...

Wherever morality is based on theology, wherever right is made dependent on divine authority, the most immoral, unjust, infamous things can be justified and established.

It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men.

In the deepest, most central place of our being, we don’t want to cross God and our not wanting to is the beginning of wisdom.

It is their mores, then, that make the Americans of the United States…capable of maintaining the rule of democracy…. Too much importance is attached to laws and too little to mores…. I am convinced that...