Immoral Quotes - Page 17

• But though Usury is in itself immoral, and justly condemned by every ethical code, its chief and worst defect in the particular case we are now examining, the growth of Capitalism and its increasing proletariat, is the centralization of irresponsible control over the lives of men: the putting power over the proletariat into the hands of a few who can direct the loans of currency and credit without which that proletariat could not be fed and clothed and maintained in work.

  Hilaire Belloc

  Wisdom, Men, Hands

  Hilaire Belloc (2016). “The Crisis Of Civilization”, p.96, TAN Books

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• If I had any doubts at all about the justice of my dislike for Shakespeare, that doubt vanished completely. What a crude, immoral,vulgar, and senseless work Hamlet is. The whole thing is based on pagan vengeance; the only aim is to gather together as many effects as possible; there is no rhyme or reason about it.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Justice, Doubt, Together

  Leo Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoy (graf), Reginald Frank Christian (1978). “Tolstoy's Letters: 1880-1910”, Burns & Oates

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• The priest, realistically considered, is the most immoral of men, for he is always willing to sacrifice every other sort of good to the one good of his arcanum - the vague body of mysteries that he calls the truth.

  H. L. Mencken

  Sacrifice, Men, Atheism

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• We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living. If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, brethren! Be careful, teachers!

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Teacher, Character, College

  Martin Luther King (1992). “The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr”, p.124, Univ of California Press

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• I claim to be a conscientiously immoral writer.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Morality, Claims, Immorality

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• The worship of Mammon may be vulgar or immoral, but it persists while other religions falter and disappear.

  Mason Cooley

  Money, Religion, May

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• The perfect pleasure: money is neither fattening nor immoral nor illegal.

  Mason Cooley

  Money, Perfect, Pleasure

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• The triumph of morality: A thief who has broken into a bedroom claims his sense of shame had been outraged, and by threatening theoccupants with exposure of an immoral act he blackmails them into not bringing charges for burglary.

  Karl Kraus

  Broken, Triumph, Thieves

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• Negotiating the adolescent stage is neither quick nor easy. . . . I have often said to parents, "If it isn't illegal, immoral, orfattening, give it your blessing." We do much better . . . if we find and support all the places we can appropriately say yes, and say only the no's that really matter.

  Virginia Satir

  Blessing, Giving, Support

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• Members of the media-monetary-military-congressional complex are immoral and have an allergy to the truth.

  Ilana Mercer

  Military, Media, Allergies

  "What if the Media Were Moral?". www.wnd.com. October 17, 2013.

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• Empathy makes you more aware of other people's suffering, but it's not clear it actually motivates you to take moral action or prevents you from taking immoral action.

  David Brooks

  Wisdom, People, Empathy

  FaceBook post by David Brooks from Sep 30, 2011

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• Governments not only are not necessary, but are harmful and most highly immoral institutions.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Government, Institutions

  Leo Tolstoy (2016). “The Complete Works of Leo Tolstoy: Novels, Short Stories, Plays, Memoirs, Letters & Essays on Art, Religion and Politics: Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Resurrection, The Death of Ivan Ilych, A Confession, The Cossacks, Correspondences with Gandhi, The Kreutzer Sonata, Fables and Stories for Childrenand Many More”, p.8382, e-artnow

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• Do you remember the classic example of chutzpah? It's the young man who kills his parents and then asks the judge for mercy on the grounds that he's an orphan. The Bush administration's updated version of that was starting a wholly illegal, immoral, and devastating war and then dismissing all kinds of criticism of its action on the grounds that 'we're at war.

  William Blum

  War, Men, Judging

  William Blum (2014). “America's Deadliest Export: Democracy – The Truth about US Foreign Policy and Everything Else”, p.55, Zed Books Ltd.

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• There are people who think contraception is immoral because the object of copulation is procreation. In a similar way there are people who think the only reason to read a book is to write a book.

  Helen DeWitt

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Helen DeWitt (2016). “The Last Samurai”, p.18, New Directions Publishing

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• There will he nothing more that posterity can add to our immoral habits; our descendants must have the same desires and act the same follies as their sires. Every vice has reached its zenith.

  Juvenal

  Desire, Vices, Add

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• Our role as artist is more controversial now because there are those, claiming the absolute authority of religion, who detest much of our work as much as they detest most of our politics. Instead of rationally debating subjects like abortion or gay rights, they condemn as immoral those who favor choice and tolerance. They disown their own dark side and magnify everyone else's until, at the extreme, doctors are murdered in the name of protecting life. I wonder, who is this God they invoke, who is so petty and mean? Is God really against gun control and food stamps for poor children?

  Barbra Streisand

  Children, Mean, Dark

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• Immoral laws are doubtless void, and should not be obeyed.

  Wendell Phillips

  Law, Void, Should

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• No one should be adored, it's fundamentally immoral.

  Kate Millett

  Should

  Kate Millett (1990). “The Loony-bin Trip”, p.69, University of Illinois Press

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• I consider promiscuity immoral. Not because sex is evil, but because sex is too good and too important.

  Ayn Rand

  Wisdom, Sex, Philosophy

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.460, Penguin

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• it is wiser to be conventionally immoral than unconventionally moral. It isn't the immorality they object to, but the originality.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Morality, Originality, Wiser

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• A rebellion against a tyrant is only immoral when it hasn't got a chance.

  Muriel Spark

  Tyrants, Revolution, Chance

  Muriel Spark (2015). “The Abbess of Crewe”, p.26, Canongate Books

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• I am humbly following in your footsteps and having a row with the Government over the iniquity of the Marriage Tax in the form of supertax ... our incomes being added together we are liable for supertax which we are refusing to pay on the grounds of morality as I consider in a Christian country it is an immoral and outrageous act to tax me because I am living in Holy matrimony instead of as my husband's mistress.

  Marie Stopes

  Christian, Country, Husband

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• Privilege, if you're very strict, is an immoral and unjust thing to have, but if you've got it you didn't choose to get it and you might as well use it. You're privileged to be at Yale, but you know you're under an obligation to repay what's been put into you.

  Walker Evans

  Photography, Yale, Use

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• The language of salesmanship was no doubt born with the first fashions in fig leaves in the garden of Eden. A strange concept has grown around it: if something is to be sold, inaccuracy is not immoral. Hence the art of advertisement - untruthfulness combined with repetition.

  Freya Stark

  Fashion, Art, Garden

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• The most immoral and disgraceful and dangerous thing that anybody can do in the arts is knowingly to feed back to the public its own ignorance and cheap tastes.

  Edmund Wilson

  Art, Ignorance, Taste

  Edmund Wilson (1951). “Memoirs of Hecate County”

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