Ethics & Morality Quote by Neil Kurshan

“Morality is not only taught; it is caught” takes aim at a comforting modern fantasy: that ethics can be downloaded like a syllabus. Kurshan’s line works because it shifts morality from the classroom to the bloodstream. “Taught” implies rules, sermons, policies, parent lectures, corporate trainings with neat bullet points. “Caught” implies exposure, contagion, proximity - the unspoken cues we absorb when we watch who gets rewarded, who gets mocked, and what people do when no one’s keeping minutes.

The subtext is almost accusatory. If morality is “caught,” then your environment is always educating you, whether it calls itself an educator or not. A school’s character program matters less than how teachers talk about struggling students in the hallway. A company’s values statement matters less than what happens to the person who refuses to lie to close a deal. Families don’t transmit ethics primarily through “because I said so,” but through how adults handle anger, money, apology, and power. The line quietly insists that hypocrisy is not a private flaw; it’s a curriculum.

The quote also carries a pragmatic warning about cultural drift. If moral behavior spreads through modeling, then cynicism spreads the same way. Kids, employees, citizens “catch” the real operating system of a community: which harms are tolerated, which truths are punished, which kindnesses are considered weakness. Kurshan’s intent feels less like philosophy than public health: design spaces where decency is visible, because people learn the world by breathing it in.