Moral Philosophy Quotes

“As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us.

[Letter to William Short, 31 October 1819]”
― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“If we can use an H-bomb--and as you said it's no checker game; it's real, it's war and nobody is fooling around--isn't it sort of ridiculous to go crawling around in the weeds, throwing knives and maybe getting yourself killed . . . and even losing the war . . . when you've got a real weapon you can use to win? What's the point in a whole lot of men risking their lives with obsolete weapons when one professor type can do so much more just by pushing a button?'
Zim didn't answer at once, which wasn't like him at all. Then he said softly, 'Are you happy in the Infantry, Hendrick? You can resign, you know.'
Hendrick muttered something; Zim said, 'Speak up!'
I'm not itching to resign, sir. I'm going to sweat out my term.'
I see. Well, the question you asked is one that a sergeant isn't really qualified to answer . . . and one that you shouldn't ask me. You're supposed to know the answer before you join up. Or you should. Did your school have a course in History and Moral Philosophy?'
What? Sure--yes, sir.'
Then you've heard the answer. But I'll give you my own--unofficial--views on it. If you wanted to teach a baby a lesson, would you cuts its head off?'
Why . . . no, sir!'
Of course not. You'd paddle it. There can be circumstances when it's just as foolish to hit an enemy with an H-Bomb as it would be to spank a baby with an ax. War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose. The purpose of war is to support your government's decisions by force. The purpose is never to kill the enemy just to be killing him . . . but to make him do what you want him to do. Not killing . . . but controlled and purposeful violence. But it's not your business or mine to decide the purpose of the control. It's never a soldier's business to decide when or where or how--or why--he fights; that belongs to the statesmen and the generals. The statesmen decide why and how much; the generals take it from there and tell us where and when and how. We supply the violence; other people--"older and wiser heads," as they say--supply the control. Which is as it should be. That's the best answer I can give you. If it doesn't satisfy you, I'll get you a chit to go talk to the regimental commander. If he can't convince you--then go home and be a civilian! Because in that case you will certainly never make a soldier.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

“The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest-Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure.”
― John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism

“I will call no being good who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow creatures; and if such a creature can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go .”
― John Stuart Mill, An examination of Sir William Hamilton's philosophy, and of the principal philosophical questions discussed in his writings

“The good which every man, who follows after virtue, desires for himself he will also desire for other men...”
― Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“There's right and there's wrong. Y'gotta do one or the other. Do the other and you may be walking around, but you're dead as a beaver hat.”
― John Wayne

“The state of a moral man, is one of tranquillity and peace; the state of an immoral man is one of perpetual unrest.”
― Marquis de Sade, Philosophy in the Boudoir

“A rural life of moral simplicity, despite its monotony, is the preferable personal narrative to a daring life of impulsive passion, which only leads to tragedy.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Slippery Slope

“Ethical actions can often entail short-term pain, but will always result in long-term gains. By contrast, unethical actions frequently have short-term gains, which make them so attractive. But I guarantee that unethical actions will always result in some form of long-term pain and ultimate collapse, frequently in unexpected ways.”
― Kashonia Carnegie PhD

“When we began this thing, you were intent to save the world. Now you’re more concerned about getting your hands dirty. Well, fuck your sense of propriety. I hope the view is lovely from atop your high horse while you watch the world burn.” ~Grist”
― Emily Brandish, Monsters & Mind Games

“If legality alone were the sole determinant of morality, then there would be no justification for redress, because apartheid laws would, like all laws, be considered moral.”
― Salatiso Lonwabo Mdeni

“Spare those you conquer, crush those who overbear.”
― Seamus Heaney, Aeneid Book VI

“We must not conclude that morals are worthless because they differ according to time and place, and that it would be wise to show our historic learning by at once discarding the moral customs of our group. A little anthropology is a dangerous thing. [...] Social order is none the less necessary; the game must still have rules in order to be played; men must know what to expect of one another in the ordinary circumstances of life. Hence the unanimity with which the members of a society practise its moral code is quite as important as the contents of that code. Our heroic rejection of the customs and morals of our tribe, upon our adolescent discovery of their relativity, betrays the immaturity of our minds; given another decade and we begin to understand that there may be more wisdom in the moral code of the group—the formulated experience of generations of the race—than can be explained in a college course. Sooner or later the disturbing realization comes to us that even that which we cannot understand may be true.”
― Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage

“Morality is the lullaby of the herd, sung to keep their dreams small. Wake up, and you will find the world is yours to shape.”
― David Maze

“Some people don't apply a stop loss, so there's no limit to how far their character can fall.”
― Mohammed Zaki Ansari, "Zaki's Gift Of Love"

“If "God's wrath" is the only thing keeping you from doing evil, you're evil.

Good people don't need to be threatened to be good.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, Atheist Guide: Atheism in a Nutshell

“True compassion and mercy are what make us human.”
― Emir Demirkiran, Melisa & Arel ; You in the Mirror

“The interests of the consumer of any commodity whatsoever should always prevail over the interests of the producer.”
― Gustave de Molinari, The Production of Security

“A bundle of broken parts cannot create a proper whole”
― S.L. Burkhart, Epic of Ryn: The Reconciliation

“Morality is an act of self-correction.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Either Right or Human: 300 Limericks of Inclusion

“Today, Adam Smith is famous as the father of capitalism and an advocate of a central tenet of free market thought: that greed is supposedly good and it drives markets. This was an idea pushed by neoliberal economists, inspired by Friedrich Hayeck and Milton Friedman, who had no knowledge of the history of moral philosophy, or of Scotland. What they missed is that no gentleman of his time could ever espouse greed, least of all a professor of moral philosophy. Indeed, Adam Smith recognized greed as an economic driver, and saw it as necessary, but also realized that it was a problem for society. His work was not an espousal of greed, but rather a response to it. His work was an attempt to find a way to reign in commercial greed to support the agrarian order, which he believed to be inherently more productive than business.”
― Jacob Soll, Adam Smith: The Kirkcaldy Papers

“If you don''t know where you want to go, any road will take you there.”
― unknown author

“If you don’t think that moral character is of incalculable value, you’re not thinking.”
― Frank Sonnenberg, BECOME: Unleash the Power of Moral Character and Be Proud of the Life You Choose

“Without religious faith, runs the argument, we cannot anchor our moral truths or truly know right from wrong. Without belief in God we will be lost in a miasma of moral nihilism. Yet the transformation in the first four centuries not just in the fortunes of Christianity but also in the ethical ideas that animated it reveals the flexibility of religious precepts. Believers may see religious ethics as absolute. They have to, in order to believe. But God Himself appears to be highly pragmatic. The absoluteness of religious precepts can seem unforgiving, less so the precepts themselves. The success of religious morality derives from its ability to cut its beliefs according to social needs while at the same time insisting that such beliefs are sacred because they are God-given.”
― Kenan Malik, The Quest for a Moral Compass: A Global History of Ethics

“Imagination withers when realisation blooms, and the ethical view of our condition withers along with it.”
― Roger Scruton, An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture

“Blessed Virgin,' I whispered, even though I couldn't even hear myself. 'Why must you keep sending me innocent monsters?”
― T. Kingfisher, What Feasts at Night

“The way of heaven has no favourites.
But it stays consistently on the side of the good."
——Lao Tzu”
― Lao Tzu, 100 quotes by Lao Tzu in Chinese Mandarin: 中文普通话名言佳句100 - 中文普通話名言佳句100 [Best quotes in Chinese Mandarin]

“A cowardly tyrant only remembers his own greatness in imagination.”
― Duop Chak Wuol

“Of course virtue is good habit and dutiful action. But the background condition of such habit and such action, in human beings, is a just mode of vision and a good quality of consciousness. It is a task to come to see the world as it is.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good

“All of these victimizations, the enslavement of species by species, of race by race, and of class by class, are aspects of one and the same fundamental fact. They are all exemplifications of the same principle—the principle asserting the right to escape one's part in the hardships of life—the doctrine that the weak are, and of right ought to be, the means, and the strong the ends—the doctrine that might makes it right for some to burglarize the lives of others of all that is precious, and at the same time to add to others' woes by the compulsory imposition of their own.”
― J. Howard Moore, Better World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis