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Quotes tagged “Morality”

“Falsity in intellectual action is intellectual immorality.”
— Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, The ethical functions of scientific study
Tagged: Morality, humanity
“Morality is not just any old topic in psychology but close to our conception of the meaning of life. Moral goodness is what gives each of us the sense that we are worthy human beings.”
— Steven Pinker, STEVEN PINKER ON “THE MORAL INSTINCT”
Tagged: Morality, Human Existence, Psychological
“A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination.”
— Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of Poetry and Other Essays
Tagged: Imagination, Man, Pain, Pleasure, Morality
“At the present time it is widely accepted among lawyers that law is higher than morality—law is something which is shaped and developed, whereas morality is something inchoate and amorphous. This is not the case. The opposite is true: morality is higher than law! Law is our human attempt to embody in rules a part of that moral sphere which is above us. We try to understand this morality, bring it down to earth, and present it in the form of law. Sometimes we are more successful, sometimes less. Sometimes we have a mere caricature of morality, but morality is always higher than law. This view must never be abandoned.”
— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Warning to the West
Tagged: Morality, Law, Lawyers
“If you hate me it is because I have morals.”
— Philipp Meyer, The Son
Tagged: morals, Hate, Ethics, Morality
“I believe that theres is one story in the world, and only one… Humans are caught - in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too - in a net of good and evil… there is no other story.”
— John Steinbeck, East of Eden(Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)
Tagged: humanity, People, Life, Cruelty, kindness, Evil, Good, Morality, humans, Literature, Stories
“I can't stand moral absolutism. You know, there's always that guy who wants to point out that Martin Luther King cheated on his wife-- as if he obviously couldn't have been a great person if he did something like that. Or someone will bring out an inspirational quote, and get you to agree, and then inform you that Hitler said it. As if a good thought couldn't come from Hitler. Moral absolutism keeps us from learning from the past. It's easy to say: 'Hitler was a demon. Nazis were all bad seeds.' That's simple. It's much harder to say: 'Is that humanity? Is that me?'”
— Anonymous, Humans of New York
Tagged: MLK, Morality, Moral Absolutism, Important, Spilled Ink, Perspective, humanity, Evil
“There seems to be a massive misunderstanding in the world right now about weakness and strength. We've somehow gotten to the point that many think compassion is a sign of weakness, and ruthlessness a sign of strength. It makes me a little bit sick.

Compassion is the ultimate expression of strength. When you have found security in your life and in yourself, the only natural result is to turn that outward and try to help others receive that gift.

Ruthlessness and intentional disregard for others are expressions of fear and insecurity. This desire to appear strong and unaffected...to go on the offense, to win at all costs, to beat your chest and express your power over others...that is only ever weakness.

Morality is not weakness. Caring is not weakness. Compassion is not weakness. Evil is not strength. Intimidation is not strength. Control is not strength.

Hugs are strength. Communication is strength. Collaboration is strength. Diversity is strength. Understanding is strength.

I'm worried for a world that seems to understand these things less every day.”
— Hank Green, via Facebook
Tagged: Compassion, vulnerability, strength, emotions, Sensitivity, Pride, Morality, Important, Social Norms
“Finally, in a low whisper, he said, ‘I think I might be a terrible person.’ For a split second I believed him - I thought he was about to confess a crime, maybe a murder. Then I realized that we all think we might be terrible people. But we only reveal this before asking someone to love us. It is a kind of undressing.”
— Miranda July, The First Bad Man
Tagged: Morality, humanity, Right And Wrong, Honesty, The Human Condition
“Some may say that such a girl is not ready for a relationship with a man, especially a man in his late sixties. But to that I say: We don't know anything. We don't know how to cure a cold or what dogs are thinking. We do terrible things, we make wars, we kill people out of greed. So who are we to say how to love. I wouldn't force her. I wouldn't have to. She would want me. We would be in love. What do you know. You don't know anything. Call me when you've cured AIDS, give me a ring then and I'll listen.”
— Miranda July, No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories
Tagged: Relationships, Wars, Morality, Right And Wrong, The Human Condition
“Identical moral choices can require far more personal courage in some instances than others and those who do the right thing under such circumstances are very brave indeed.”
— Karl Malantes, What It Is Like To Go To War
Tagged: Life, War, Morality, Choices
“If you tell the truth you do not need a good memory!”
— Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Amazon Classics Edition)
Tagged: Truth, Honesty, tell the truth, Goodness, Morality, Ethics, Wisdom, Funny, Irony, humor
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
— William Shakespeare, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Knickerbocker Classics)
Tagged: Thinking, Morality, Ethics, Good and Bad, Relativity, 107 Of The Greatest Single Sentences In Literature, Perfect Sentences
“Why do we assume that pain yields wisdom or moral clarity?”
— Edna Friedberg, Elie Wiesel and the Agony of Bearing Witness
Tagged: Pain, Perspective, Trauma, Morality, Wisdom
“Having a personal philosophy is like having a pet marmoset, because it may be very attractive when you acquire it, but there may be situations when it will not come in handy at all.”
— Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events (13 Book Series)
Tagged: Personal Philosophy, Morality, humor
“Stealing, of course, is a crime, and a very impolite thing to do. But like most impolite things, it is excusable under certain circumstances. Stealing is not excusable if, for instance, you are in a museum and you decide that a certain painting would look better in your house, and you simply grab the painting and take it there. But if you were very, very hungry, and you had no way of obtaining money, it would be excusable to grab the painting, take it to your house, and eat it.”
— Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events (13 Book Series)
Tagged: humor, Morality, Right And Wrong, Stealing
“The reality is we often become our kindest, most ethical selves only by seeing what it feels like to be a selfish jackass first.”
— Cheryl Strayed, Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar
Tagged: Good Person, Bad Person, Morality
“I hated knowing what I wanted and knowing what was right and knowing they weren’t the same thing.”
— Maggie Stiefvater, Forever
Tagged: Desire, Morality, Right And Wrong, Conflicting Desires
“Goodness can be found sometimes in the middle of hell.”
— Charles Bukowski, Women
Tagged: Goodness, Virtue, Vices, Heaven, Hell, Morality
“I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices.”
— Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Tagged: Philosophy, Life, Perspective, Morality

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This page was created by our editorial team. Each page is manually curated, researched, collected, and issued by our staff writers. Quotes contained on this page have been double checked for their citations, their accuracy and the impact it will have on our readers.

Kelly Peacock is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. Kelly has a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Farieligh Dickinson University and has contributed to many literary and cultural publications. Kelly assists on a wide variety of quote inputting and social media functions for Quote Catalog. Visit her personal website here.

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