Philosophy & Thought: Ethics & Morality Quotes

"Courtesy is only a thin veneer on the general selfishness"

Honore de Balzac, Novelist

"Conscience is our unerring judge until we finally stifle it"

Honore de Balzac, Novelist

"We do not praise others, ordinarily, but in order to be praised ourselves"

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

"We do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue"

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

"There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess"

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

"There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do"

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

"There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness"

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

"The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices"

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

"Women's virtue is frequently nothing but a regard to their own quiet, and a tenderness for their reputation"

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

"Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended"

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

"We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them"

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

"We should often feel ashamed of our best actions, if the world could see all the motives which produced them"

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

"We should often blush for our very best actions, if the world did but see all the motives upon which they were done"

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

"That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest"

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

"Our virtues are often, in reality, no better than vices disguised"

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

"Only the contemptible fear contempt"

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

"No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does"

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

"No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will"

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

"The test of every religious, political, or educational system is the man that it forms"

Henri Frederic Amiel, Philosopher

"Our systems, perhaps, are nothing more than an unconscious apology for our faults, a gigantic scaffolding whose object is to hide from us our favorite sin"

Henri Frederic Amiel, Philosopher

"He that does good for good's sake seeks neither paradise nor reward, but he is sure of both in the end"

William Penn, Leader

"With the supermarket as our temple and the singing commercial as our litany, are we likely to fire the world with an irresistible vision of America's exalted purpose and inspiring way of life?"

Adlai E. Stevenson, Politician

"As for charity, it is a matter in which the immediate effect on the persons directly concerned, and the ultimate consequence to the general good, are apt to be at complete war with one another"

John Stuart Mill, Philosopher

"All desirable things... are desirable either for the pleasure inherent in themselves, or as a means to the promotion of pleasure and the prevention of pain"

John Stuart Mill, Philosopher

"My concern today is not with the length of a person's hair, but with his conduct"

Richard M. Nixon, President

"Pleasure and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends"

John Stuart Mill, Philosopher

"One of the darkest evils of our world is surely the unteachable wildness of the Good"

H.G. Wells, Author

"Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo"

H.G. Wells, Author

"One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him"

Socrates, Philosopher

"It is not living that matters, but living rightly"

Socrates, Philosopher

"It is a revenge the devil sometimes takes upon the virtuous, that he entraps them by the force of the very passion they have suppressed and think themselves superior to"

George Santayana, Philosopher

"Character is the basis of happiness, and happiness the sanction of character"

George Santayana, Philosopher

"If man asks for many laws, it is only because he is sure that his neighbor needs them; privately he is an unphilosophical anarchist, and thinks laws in his own case superfluous"

Will Durant, Historian

"A statesman cannot afford to be a moralist"

Will Durant, Historian

"If you punish a child for being naughty, and reward him for being good, he will do right merely for the sake of the reward; and when he goes out into the world and finds that goodness is not always rewarded, nor wickedness always punished, he will grow into a man who only thinks about how he may get on in the world, and does right or wrong according as he finds advantage to himself"

Immanuel Kant, Philosopher

"The only objects of practical reason are therefore those of good and evil. For by the former is meant an object necessarily desired according to a principle of reason; by the latter one necessarily shunned, also according to a principle of reason"

Immanuel Kant, Philosopher

"Religion is the recognition of all our duties as divine commands"

Immanuel Kant, Philosopher

"May you live your life as if the maxim of your actions were to become universal law"

Immanuel Kant, Philosopher

"Live your life as though your every act were to become a universal law"

Immanuel Kant, Philosopher

"It is not necessary that whilst I live I live happily; but it is necessary that so long as I live I should live honourably"

Immanuel Kant, Philosopher

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