Philosophy & Thought: Ethics & Morality Quotes

"Passions are vices or virtues to their highest powers"

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Writer

"The heretic is always better dead. And mortal eyes cannot distinguish the saint from the heretic"

George Bernard Shaw, Dramatist

"It's so hard to know what to do when one wishes earnestly to do right"

George Bernard Shaw, Dramatist

"Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power"

George Bernard Shaw, Dramatist

"Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing"

George Bernard Shaw, Dramatist

"There is nothing more dangerous than the conscience of a bigot"

George Bernard Shaw, Dramatist

"An election is a moral horror, as bad as a battle except for the blood; a mud bath for every soul concerned in it"

George Bernard Shaw, Dramatist

"Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress"

Napoleon Bonaparte, Leader

"We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect the needful duties of active life; for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue"

Cicero, Philosopher

"What is permissible is not always honorable"

Cicero, Philosopher

"Fear is not a lasting teacher of duty"

Cicero, Philosopher

"One may no more live in the world without picking up the moral prejudices of the world than one will be able to go to hell without perspiring"

H. L. Mencken, Writer

"The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught"

H. L. Mencken, Writer

"Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 % of them are wrong"

H. L. Mencken, Writer

"We have the duty to protect the life of an unborn child"

Ronald Reagan, President

"There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"I am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greek and Roman leave to us"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"Excellence, then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean, relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice, and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object, but to escape some ill"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"Those who excel in virtue have the best right of all to rebel, but then they are of all men the least inclined to do so"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"Bad men are full of repentance"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side!"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men"