Moral Law Quotes

• Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.

  Francis Bacon

  Beauty, Infinite, Sensible

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• One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Religious, Responsibility

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2011). “Why We Can't Wait”, p.60, Beacon Press

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• It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Inspirational, Acceptance

  1962 Speech at Cornell College, Mt Vernon, Iowa. Reported in the Wall Street Journal, 13 Nov.

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  Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.

  John Adams

  Leadership, Character, Persistence

  "I’ll Vote for That" by Katharine Rose, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 22, 2015.

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• There are two types of laws: there are just laws and there are unjust laws... What is the difference between the two?...An unjust law is a man-made code that is out of harmony with the moral law.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, War, Men

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  Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.

  Immanuel Kant

  Nature, Two, Awe And Wonder

  Critique of Practical Reason conclusion (1788) (translation by Lewis White Beck)

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• Every society and religion has rules, for both have moral laws. And the essence of morality consists, as in art, of drawing the line somewhere.

  Huston Smith

  Art, Law, Essence

  "The World of Religion According to Huston Smith". Interview with Marilyn Berlin Snell, www.motherjones.com. November/December 1997.

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• When a man is guided by the principles of reciprocity and consciousness, he is not far from the moral law. Whatever you don't wish for yourself don't do unto others.

  Confucius

  Men, Law, Wish

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• The Moral Law tells us the tune we have to play: our instincts are merely the keys.

  C. S. Lewis

  Law, Play, Keys

  C. S. Lewis (2009). “Mere Christianity”, p.10, Harper Collins

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• One can regard the moral law as an illusion, and so cut himself off from the common ground of humanity.

  C. S. Lewis

  Cutting, Law, Humanity

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.48, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.

  Lord Acton

  Fall, Law, Tables

  Inaugural Lecture on the Study of History, 1906, sourcebooks.fordham.edu. June 11, 1895.

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• Strictly speaking, there are no such things as good and bad impulses. Think...of a piano. It has not got two kinds of notes on it, the 'right' notes and the 'wrong' ones. Every single note is right at one time and wrong at another. The Moral Law is not any one instinct or set of instincts: it is something which makes a kind of tune (the tune we call goodness or right conduct) by directing the instincts.

  C. S. Lewis

  Thinking, Law, Two

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• A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law.

  Martin Luther

  Men, Squares, Law

  Letter from a Birmingham Jail, www.africa.upenn.edu. April 16, 1963.

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• A nation, as an individual, has duties to fulfill appointed by God and His moral law.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Law, Moral, Individual

  Benjamin Disraeli (1870). “Lothair”, p.214

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• Mankind is one, seeing that all are equally subject to the moral law. All men are equal in God's eyes.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Eye, Men, Law

  Mahatma Gandhi (2005). “All Men Are Brothers”, p.113, A&C Black

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• Conscience is the internal perception of God's Moral Law.

  Oswald Chambers

  Law, Perception, Moral

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• Man's duty is to improve himself; to cultivate his mind; and, when he finds himself going astray, to bring the moral law to bear upon himself.

  Immanuel Kant

  Men, Law, Growth

  Immanuel Kant, Annette Churton (2003). “On Education”, p.11, Courier Corporation

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• Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.

  Immanuel Kant

  Fear, Philosophical, Science

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• Ordinary human laws are the means - however imperfect - by which we express our understanding of the enduring moral law.

  Russell Kirk

  Mean, Law, Understanding

  Russell Kirk (2014). “The Roots of American Order”, p.118, Open Road Media

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• There is nothing indulgent about the Moral Law. It is as hard as nails. It tells you to do the straight thing and it does not seem to care how painful, or dangerous, or difficult it is to do.

  C. S. Lewis

  Law, Nails, Doe

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.43, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The moral law is a reason to think of God as plausible - not just a God who sets the universe in motion but a God who cares about human beings, because we seem uniquely amongst creatures on the planet to have this far-developed sense of morality.

  Richard Dawkins

  Thinking, Law, Who Cares

  Source: inters.org

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• All moral laws are merely statements that certain kinds of actions will have good effects.

  George Edward Moore

  Law, Moral, Action

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• You cannot have a boundary-less existence, because your neighbor has his own boundaries, and who is going to give you the ethics between the two boundaries? If there is no objective moral law, relativism will take hold, and relativism ultimately will lead to self-destruction.

  Ravi Zacharias

  Two, Self, Law

  Source: rzim.org

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• No matter what theory of the origin of government you adopt, if you follow it out to its legitimate conclusions it will bring you face to face with the moral law.

  Henry Van Dyke

  Government, Law, Matter

  Henry Van Dyke (1888). “The national sin of literary piracy: a sermon”

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• Beauty is but the sensible image of the infinite. Like truth and justice, it lives within us; like virtue and the moral law, it is a companion of the soul.

  George Bancroft

  Life, Law, Justice

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