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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Philosophical literature13 quotes
What I say is that "just" or "right" means nothing but what is to the interest of the stronger party. — Thrasymachus · 375 BCThere is... Only a single categorical imperative and it is this: Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law. — Immanuel Kant · 1785Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent. — Adam Smith · 1759Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual. — Friedrich Nietzsche · 1882We give to necessity the praise of virtue. — Quintilian · 95All sins are attempts to fill voids. — Simone Weil · 1943All 13 quotes →Political literature4 quotes
There are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963A thing, moderately good, is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper, is always a virtue; but moderation in principle, is a species of vice. — Thomas Paine · 1792It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong. — Jeremy Bentham · 1776Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime. — Oscar Wilde · 1891Historical literature3 quotes
It is circumstance and proper timing that give an action its character and make it either good or bad. — Plutarch · 119Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery. — Edward Gibbon · 1781Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind. — Edward Gibbon · 1776Political speech3 quotes
The greatest good to the greatest number is the object to be attained. — Ulysses S. Grant · 1869There is but one law for all, namely, that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity, — the Law of Nature and of Nations. — Edmund Burke · 1794Those who are called upon to administer it must recognize as its leading principle the duty of shaping their measures so as to produce the greatest good to the greatest number. — William Henry Harrison · 1841Religious literature3 quotes
Whoever destroys a single life is as guilty as though he had destroyed the entire world; and whoever rescues a single life earns as much merit as though he had rescued the entire world. — The Talmud · 200The end justifies the means. — Hermann Busenbaum · 1650The Lord says in the gospel; "I am the Truth." He does not say "I am custom." Therefore, when the truth is made manifest, custom must give way to truth. — Libosus of Vaga · 400Tragedy (play)2 quotes
What's not forbidden to do make bold. — Friedrich Schiller · 1798There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. — William Shakespeare · 1616Comedy (play)1 quote
It is public scandal that constitutes offence, and to sin in secret is not to sin at all. — Moliere · 1669Coming of age story1 quote
Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns. — Charlotte Bronte · 1848Crime1 quote
A man got to have a code. — Omar Little · 2006Crime (TV)1 quote
A man got to have a code. — Omar Little · 2006Drama1 quote
A man got to have a code. — Omar Little · 2006Drama (TV)1 quote
A man got to have a code. — Omar Little · 2006Legal writing1 quote
Justice is the constant and perpetual wish to render to every one his due. — Justinian I · 533Nature writing1 quote
A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. — Aldo Leopold · 1949Psychological literature1 quote
An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible. — William James · 1890Satire1 quote
Certainly nothing is unnatural that is not physically impossible. — Richard Brinsley Sheridan · 1779Satire (play)1 quote
Certainly nothing is unnatural that is not physically impossible. — Richard Brinsley Sheridan · 1779Tragedy1 quote
What's not forbidden to do make bold. — Friedrich Schiller · 1798Travel writing1 quote
Prosperity is the best protector of principle. — Mark Twain · 1897