The Quotes canon

Sourced and curated.

Every quote has been curated by hand and carefully authenticated.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires. — Pope Benedict XVI · 2005What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, and immorality is what they dislike. — Alfred North Whitehead · 1941He [the prince] holds to what is right when he can but knows how to do wrong when he must. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532Each race determines for itself what indecencies are. Nature knows no indecencies; man invents them. — Mark Twain · 1896To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man's character one must judge it by the standards of his time, not ours. — Mark Twain · 1896For a good cause, wrongdoing is virtuous. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BCAll 14 quotes →
Morality9 quotes
What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, and immorality is what they dislike. — Alfred North Whitehead · 1941Each race determines for itself what indecencies are. Nature knows no indecencies; man invents them. — Mark Twain · 1896To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man's character one must judge it by the standards of his time, not ours. — Mark Twain · 1896Actions receive their tincture from the times, And as they change, are virtues made or crimes. — Daniel Defoe · 1703The end justifies the means. — Hermann Busenbaum · 1650There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. — William Shakespeare · 1616All 9 quotes →
Moral theory6 quotes
What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, and immorality is what they dislike. — Alfred North Whitehead · 1941Each race determines for itself what indecencies are. Nature knows no indecencies; man invents them. — Mark Twain · 1896Actions receive their tincture from the times, And as they change, are virtues made or crimes. — Daniel Defoe · 1703The end justifies the means. — Hermann Busenbaum · 1650There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. — William Shakespeare · 1616There exists a law, inborn of our hearts by natural intuition, if our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right. — Cicero · 52 BC
Each race determines for itself what indecencies are. Nature knows no indecencies; man invents them. — Mark Twain · 1896To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man's character one must judge it by the standards of his time, not ours. — Mark Twain · 1896Actions receive their tincture from the times, And as they change, are virtues made or crimes. — Daniel Defoe · 1703
For a good cause, wrongdoing is virtuous. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BCThe end justifies the means. — Hermann Busenbaum · 1650
We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires. — Pope Benedict XVI · 2005
Expediency1 quote
He [the prince] holds to what is right when he can but knows how to do wrong when he must. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532
To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man's character one must judge it by the standards of his time, not ours. — Mark Twain · 1896
Maybe there ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue, they's just what people does. Some things folks do is nice and some ain't so nice, and that's all any man's got a right to say. — Jim Casy · 1940
The end justifies the means. — Hermann Busenbaum · 1650
Food comes first, then morals. — Bertolt Brecht · 1928
He [the prince] holds to what is right when he can but knows how to do wrong when he must. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. — William Shakespeare · 1616
There exists a law, inborn of our hearts by natural intuition, if our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right. — Cicero · 52 BC
Thoughts1 quote
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. — William Shakespeare · 1616
Tolerance1 quote
Complete moral tolerance is possible only when men have become completely indifferent to each other-that is to say, when society is at an end. — James Fitzjames Stephen · 1873
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied, And vice sometime by action dignified. — William Shakespeare · 1597
Wrongdoing1 quote
For a good cause, wrongdoing is virtuous. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BC