Philosophy & Thought: Ethics & Morality Quotes

"On a group of theories one can found a school; but on a group of values one can found a culture, a civilization, a new way of living together among men"

Ignazio Silone, Author

"On the surface, we all act like we all love each other and we're free and easy, and actually we're far more moralistic than any other society I've ever lived in"

Kathy Acker, Activist

"To hold that the act of homosexual sodomy is somehow protected as a fundamental right would be to cast aside millennia of moral teaching"

Warren E. Burger, Judge

"Calculated risks of abuse are taken in order to preserve higher values"

Warren E. Burger, Judge

"The Impossible Generalized Man today is the critic who believes in loving those unworthy of love as well as those worthy - yet believes this only insofar as no personal risk is entailed. Meaning he loves no one, worthy or no. This is what makes him impossible"

Nelson Algren, Novelist

"Too many people use abortion as a form of birth control. And that's very wrong. I could never, ever have an abortion"

Brooke Shields, Actress

"The power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all"

Origen, Theologian

"People have been convinced that growth for growth's sake is a good thing"

Tom Scholz, Musician

"There are few retreats that can escape the penetrating eye of avarice"

Thomas Clarkson, Activist

"Right is right and wrong is wrong"

Terrell Owens, Athlete

"I don't think a prostitute is more moral than a wife, but they are doing the same thing"

Prince Philip, Royalty

"Nobody should trust their virtue with necessity, the force of which is never known till it is felt, and it is therefore one of the first duties to avoid the temptation of it"

Mary Wortley Montagu, Writer

"Our laws are a reflection of our culture. Our culture does not condone the torture of innocent and defenseless creatures. And we, as a society, believe all God's creatures should be treated humanely"

Joe Moore, Celebrity

"In the long run, the public interest depends on private virtue"

James Q. Wilson, Politician

"But I felt all the more bound to make this proposal, because it at once turns to a reproach"

Ferdinand Lassalle, Politician

"Man can now fly in the air like a bird, swim under the ocean like a fish, he can burrow into the ground like a mole. Now if only he could walk the earth like a man, this would be paradise"

Tommy Douglas, Clergyman

"The right to kill another person is not a right that I would agree with and support"

Tom Tancredo, Politician

"So I wonder if anything should ever be off limits?"

Kathy Griffin, Comedian

"It is a governing principle of nature that the agency which can produce most good, when perverted from its proper aim, is most productive of evil"

James F. Cooper, Novelist

"Public opinion is a second conscience"

William R. Alger, Writer

"The mere holding of slaves, therefore, is a condition having per se nothing of moral character in it, any more than the being a parent, or employer, or ruler"

Samuel Morse, Inventor

"In fact, many nations currently refuse to support embryonic stem cell research of any kind"

Nathan Deal, Politician

"I feel that I, and the people under my command, tried to use all the traditional methods of recruiting agents which were also used by other intelligence services; adopting also means like pressure, money, sex - but that did not characterize my service"

Markus Wolf, Public Servant

"People look for morals in fiction because there has always been a confusion between fiction and philosophy"

John Cheever, Writer

"I'm not in the judgment part of journalism"

Jim Lehrer, Journalist

"Names are what people sometimes use to excuse their thoughts and actions towards you"

Simon Travaglia, Author

"What is fetus farming? Simply put, it is the creation and development of a human fetus for the purposes of later killing it for research or for harvesting its organs"

Nathan Deal, Politician

"Then, in the next place, we must know that every being which is endowed with reason, and transgresses its statutes and limitations, is undoubtedly involved in sin by swerving from rectitude and justice"

Origen, Theologian

"The bad man desires arbitrary power. What moves the evil man is the love of injustice"

John Rawls, Educator

"For me, an area of moral clarity is: you're in front of someone who's suffering and you have the tools at your disposal to alleviate that suffering or even eradicate it, and you act"

Paul Farmer, Educator

"We may fight against what is wrong, but if we allow ourselves to hate, that is to insure our spiritual defeat and our likeness to what we hate"

George William Russell, Writer

"A fool bolts pleasure, then complains of moral indigestion"

Minna Antrim, Writer

"All is extremely genteel; and there is almost as much repose as in the golden saloons of the contiguous palaces. At any rate, if there be as much vice, there is as little crime"

Isaac Disraeli, Writer

"The natural response of the old-timers is to build a strong moral wall against the outside. This is where the world starts to be painted in black and white, saints inside, and sinners outside the wall"

Mary Douglas, Scientist

"Every man should have laws of his own, I should think; commandments of his own, for every man has a different set of circumstances wherein to work - or worry"

Gilbert Parker, Politician

"But is it not the fact that religion emanates from the nature, from the moral state of the individual? Is it not therefore true that unless the nature be completely exercised, the moral state harmonized, the religion cannot be healthy?"

Harriet Martineau, Writer

"Laws and customs may be creative of vice; and should be therefore perpetually under process of observation and correction: but laws and customs cannot be creative of virtue: they may encourage and help to preserve it; but they cannot originate it"

Harriet Martineau, Writer

"Prostitution presents a moral, economic and social problem that cannot be resolved juridically"

Frederica Montseny, Politician

"Every shot that kills ricochets"

Gilbert Parker, Politician

"This point seems counter-intuitive, given the amount of conspicuous vulgarity, vice, and immorality in America. Indeed, some Islamic fundamentalists argue that their regimes are morally superior to the United States because they seek to foster virtue among the citizens"

Dinesh D'Souza, Author

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