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Moral theory54 quotes
What I say is that "just" or "right" means nothing but what is to the interest of the stronger party. — Thrasymachus · 375 BCA man got to have a code. — Omar Little · 2006Whoever 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 · 200What's not forbidden to do make bold. — Friedrich Schiller · 1798All inequality that has no special utility to justify it is injustice. — Jeremy Bentham · 1795An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible. — William James · 1890All 54 quotes →Morality25 quotes
What I say is that "just" or "right" means nothing but what is to the interest of the stronger party. — Thrasymachus · 375 BCWhat 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 · 1941Prosperity is the best protector of principle. — Mark Twain · 1897Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual. — Friedrich Nietzsche · 1882Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery. — Edward Gibbon · 1781Man is neither good nor bad; he is born with instincts and abilities. — Honore de Balzac · 1842All 25 quotes →Moral relativism6 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 BCUtilitarianism5 quotes
The greatest good to the greatest number is the object to be attained. — Ulysses S. Grant · 1869It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong. — Jeremy Bentham · 1776The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation. — Jeremy Bentham · 1832That action is best, which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers. — Francis Hutcheson · 1725Those 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 · 1841Custom and convention4 quotes
Each race determines for itself what indecencies are. Nature knows no indecencies; man invents them. — Mark Twain · 1896Conventionality 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 · 1848Actions receive their tincture from the times,
And as they change, are virtues made or crimes. — Daniel Defoe · 1703The 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 · 400Legal theory4 quotes
Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent. — Adam Smith · 1759There 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. · 1963Whenever 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 · 1776Pardon one offense, and you encourage the commission of many. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BCPolitical theory4 quotes
What I say is that "just" or "right" means nothing but what is to the interest of the stronger party. — Thrasymachus · 375 BCThe greatest good to the greatest number is the object to be attained. — Ulysses S. Grant · 1869The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation. — Jeremy Bentham · 1832Those 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 · 1841Justice3 quotes
What I say is that "just" or "right" means nothing but what is to the interest of the stronger party. — Thrasymachus · 375 BCThere 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. · 1963Justice is the constant and perpetual wish to render to every one his due. — Justinian I · 533Law3 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. · 1963Whenever 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 · 1776There 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 · 1794Moral principles3 quotes
A man got to have a code. — Omar Little · 2006Prosperity is the best protector of principle. — Mark Twain · 1897Principles have no real force except when one is well fed. — Mark Twain · 1893End justifies the means2 quotes
The end justifies the means. — Hermann Busenbaum · 1650The end cannot justify the means, for the simple and obvious reason that the means employed determine the nature of the ends produced. — Aldous Huxley · 1937Justifications and rationales2 quotes
The end must justify the means. — Matthew Prior · 1700The end justifies the means. — Hermann Busenbaum · 1650Moral universalism2 quotes
There 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 · 1794Right knows no boundaries, and justice no frontiers; the brotherhood of man is not a domestic institution. — Learned Hand · 1945Natural law2 quotes
There 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 · 1794Right knows no boundaries, and justice no frontiers; the brotherhood of man is not a domestic institution. — Learned Hand · 1945Necessity2 quotes
We give to necessity the praise of virtue. — Quintilian · 95Necessity knows no law except to prevail. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BCTheory of punishment2 quotes
I say that there is no such thing as moral responsibility for past acts, no such thing as real justice in punishing them, for the reason that human beings are not stationary existences, but changing, growing, incessantly progressive organisms, which in no two moments are the same. Therefore justice, whose only possible mode of proceeding is to punish in present time for what is done in past time, must always punish a person more or less similar to, but never identical with, the one who committed the offence, and therein must be no justice. — Edward Bellamy · 1880Pardon one offense, and you encourage the commission of many. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BCCan vs. should1 quote
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it. — G.K. Chesterton · 1917Causes of crime1 quote
Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime. — Oscar Wilde · 1891Character1 quote
No one ever suddenly became depraved. — Juvenal · 127Civil disobedience1 quote
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. · 1963Crime1 quote
Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime. — Oscar Wilde · 1891Decisions and choices1 quote
An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible. — William James · 1890Depravity1 quote
No one ever suddenly became depraved. — Juvenal · 127Desperation1 quote
Necessity knows no law except to prevail. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BCEconomic inequality1 quote
All inequality that has no special utility to justify it is injustice. — Jeremy Bentham · 1795Environmental protection1 quote
A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. — Aldo Leopold · 1949Happiness1 quote
On all plausible theories, everyone’s well-being consists at least in part in being happy, and avoiding suffering. — Derek Parfit · 2011How to behave1 quote
There 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 · 1785Human nature1 quote
Man is neither good nor bad; he is born with instincts and abilities. — Honore de Balzac · 1842Hunger1 quote
Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime. — Oscar Wilde · 1891