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Morality49 quotes
What I say is that "just" or "right" means nothing but what is to the interest of the stronger party. — Thrasymachus · 375 BCThe masters have been done away with; the morality of the common man has triumphed. — Friedrich Nietzsche · 1887Censorship is crucial for preserving morals but useless for restoring them. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1762The men, women, and children who compose a society at any time are the unconscious depositaries and transmitters of the mores. They inherited them without knowing it; they are molding them unconsciously; they will transmit them involuntarily. The people cannot make the mores. They are made by them. — William Graham Sumner · 1906What 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 · 1897All 49 quotes →Moral theory25 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 relativism9 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 →Custom and convention6 quotes
The men, women, and children who compose a society at any time are the unconscious depositaries and transmitters of the mores. They inherited them without knowing it; they are molding them unconsciously; they will transmit them involuntarily. The people cannot make the mores. They are made by them. — William Graham Sumner · 1906Each 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 · 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 · 400Moral principles4 quotes
Prosperity is the best protector of principle. — Mark Twain · 1897Principles have no real force except when one is well fed. — Mark Twain · 1893Be good and you will be lonesome. — Mark Twain · 1897Food comes first, then morals. — Bertolt Brecht · 1928Moral decline3 quotes
Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist. — Edmund Burke · 1777Where wealth and freedom reign, contentment fails,
And honour sinks where commerce long prevails. — Oliver Goldsmith · 1764Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay;
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;
A breath can make them, as a breath has made:
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supplied. — Oliver Goldsmith · 1770Natural law3 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 · 1945Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more seriously reflection concentrates upon them: the starry heaven above me and the moral law within me. — Immanuel Kant · 1788End 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 · 1937Freedom2 quotes
Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist. — Edmund Burke · 1777Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith. — Alexis de Tocqueville · 1835Good and evil2 quotes
Good and evil, right and wrong were invented for the ordinary average man, the inferior man, because he needs them. — Brandon · 1948Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! — Isaiah 5:20 · 681 BCMoral 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 · 1945Moralism2 quotes
By hating vices too much, they come to love men too little. — Edmund Burke · 1790The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. — Oscar Wilde · 1891Political theory2 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 happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation. — Jeremy Bentham · 1832Right and wrong2 quotes
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. — God · 570 BCGood and evil, right and wrong were invented for the ordinary average man, the inferior man, because he needs them. — Brandon · 1948Utilitarianism2 quotes
The 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 · 1725Books1 quote
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. — Oscar Wilde · 1891Can 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 · 1917Capitalism1 quote
Where wealth and freedom reign, contentment fails,
And honour sinks where commerce long prevails. — Oliver Goldsmith · 1764Causes of crime1 quote
Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime. — Oscar Wilde · 1891Censorship1 quote
Censorship is crucial for preserving morals but useless for restoring them. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1762Character1 quote
No one ever suddenly became depraved. — Juvenal · 127Cities1 quote
We do not look in great cities for our best morality. — Jane Austen · 1814Crime1 quote
Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime. — Oscar Wilde · 1891Decline of democracy1 quote
Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist. — Edmund Burke · 1777Democracy1 quote
Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist. — Edmund Burke · 1777Depravity1 quote
No one ever suddenly became depraved. — Juvenal · 127Economic inequality1 quote
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay;
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;
A breath can make them, as a breath has made:
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supplied. — Oliver Goldsmith · 1770God's covenant1 quote
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. — God · 570 BCHistorical criticism1 quote
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 · 1896Holding to one's principles1 quote
Be good and you will be lonesome. — Mark Twain · 1897