Moral Quotes - Page 35

• The rat had no morals, no conscience, no scruples, no consideration, no decency, no milk of rodent kindness, no compunctions, no higher feeling, no friendliness, no anything

  E. B. White

  Kindness, Feelings, Rodents

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.170, Cornell University Press

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• My own sense as an American is that we have begun to experience the disadvantages of framing virtually all moral issues in terms of individual rights. American history has consisted of swings back and forth between rights talk on the one hand and talk of duties, responsibilities, and the common good on the other hand. Recent decades have seen a big swing toward rights, and conceived in very individualistic terms, which hasn't always been the case even with rights.

  David Wong

  Responsibility, Common, Individual

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• America used to have a strong 'moral safety net' for its people. Today that net is badly frayed, not only because families are disintegrating but also because the church doesn't play the same role that it once did in many Americans' lives.

  Gary Bauer

  Strong, Play, America

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• I profoundly believe it takes a lot of practice to become a moral slob.

  William F. Buckley, Jr.

  Humorous, Believe, Practice

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• I just have a real problem with people who seek to portray fatness or thinness as moral concepts.

  Julie Burchill

  Real, People, Problem

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• Every fact is related on one side to sensation, and, on the other, to morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two sides, to find the other: given the upper, to find the under side.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Games, Two Sides, Facts

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.690, Library of America

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• I have reached the conclusion that those who have physical courage also have moral courage. Physical courage is a great test.

  Oriana Fallaci

  Strength, Courage, Umpires

  "The Agitator" by Margaret Talbot, www.newyorker.com. June 5, 2006.

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• Patriotism varies, from a noble devotion to a moral lunacy.

  William Ralph Inge

  Patriotic, Patriotism, Noble

  William Ralph Inge (1920). “Outspoken Essays”

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• Veganism is an act of nonviolent defiance. It is our statement that we reject the notion that animals are things and that we regard sentient nonhumans as moral persons with the fundamental moral right not to be treated as the property or resources of humans.

  Gary L. Francione

  Animal, Fundamentals, Resources

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• If patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, it is not merely because evil deeds may be performed in the name of patriotism, but because patriotic fervor can obliterate moral distinctions altogether.

  Ralph Barton Perry

  Patriotic, Names, Evil

  Ralph Barton Perry (1951). “The Citizen Decides: A Guide to Responsible Thinking in Time of Crisis”

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• "I criticize America because I love her. I want her to stand as a moral example to the world."

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  America, Patriotism, Criticism

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• Scientific truth is marvelous, but moral truth is divine and whoever breathes its air and walks by its light has found the lost paradise.

  Horace Mann

  Truth, Science, Air

  Horace Mann (1850). “A Few Thoughts for a Young Man: A Lecture, Delivered Before the Boston Mercantile Library Association, on Its 29th Anniversary”, p.38

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• To me, the human move to take responsibility for the living Earth is laughable - the rhetoric of the powerless. The planet takes care of us, not we of it. Our self-inflated moral imperative to guide a wayward Earth, or heal our sick planet, is evidence of our immense capacity for self delusion. Rather, we need to protect ourselves from ourselves.

  Lynn Margulis

  Moving, Responsibility, Self

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• The soul and substance of what customarily ranks as patriotism is moral cowardice -- and always has been.

  Mark Twain

  Soul, Patriotism, Substance

  Mark Twain, Caroline Thomas Harnsberger (2009). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.350, Courier Corporation

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• The moral duty of the free writer is to begin his work at home: to be a critic of his own community, his own country, his own government, his own culture. The more freedom the writer possesses, the greater the moral obligation to play the role of critic.

  Edward Abbey

  Country, Home, Government

  Edward Abbey (1996). “The Serpents of Paradise: A Reader”, p.373, Macmillan

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• Under the discipline of unity, knowledge and morality come together. No longer can we have that paltry 'objective' knowledge so prized by the academic specialists. To know anything at all becomes a moral predicament. Aware that there is no such thing as a specialized effect, one becomes responsible for judgments as well as facts. Aware that as an agricultural scientist he had 'one great subject,' Sir Albert Howard could no longer ask, What can I do with what I know? without at the same time asking, How can I be responsible for what I know?

  Wendell Berry

  Discipline, Unity, Together

  Wendell Berry (2015). “The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture”, p.43, Counterpoint

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• According to the most common interpretation of biblical prophecy, Jesus will return only after things have gone horribly awry. Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency.

  Sam Harris

  Jesus, Believe, Biblical

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• Have the courage to use your own reason- That is the motto of enlightenment. "Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals" (1785)

  Immanuel Kant

  Enlightenment, Foundation, Use

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• If we examine every stage of our lives, we find that from our first breath to our last we are under the constraint of circumstances. And yet we still possess the greatest of all freedoms, the power of developing our innermost selves in harmony with the moral order of the universe, and so winning peace of heart whatever obstacles we meet.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Heart, Winning, Self

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• Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Revenge, Men

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.115, Beacon Press

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• Sir," returned Mrs. Sparsit, " I cannot say that i have heard him precisely snore, and therefore must not make that statement. But on winter evenings, when he has fallen asleep at his table, I have heard him, what I should prefer to describe as partially choke. I have heard him on such occasions produce sounds of a nature similar to what may be heard in dutch clocks. Not," said Mrs. Sparsit, with a lofty sense of giving strict evidence, " That I would convey any imputation on his moral character. Far from it.

  Charles Dickens

  Character, Winter, Giving

  Charles Dickens “Hard Times”, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Together they had overcome the daily incomprehension, the instantaneous hatred, the reciprocal nastiness, and fabulous flashes of glory in the conjugal conspiracy. It was time when they both loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity. Life would still present them with other moral trials, of course, but that no longer mattered: they were on the other shore.

  Gabriel Garcia Marquez

  Grateful, Adversity, Hatred

  "Love in the Time of Cholera". Book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1985.

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• Darkness invades the dreams of the glassblower. Of all the unpleasantries his dreams grab in out of the night air, an extinguished light is the worst. Light in his dreams, was always hope: the basic, moral hope. As the contacts break helically away, hope turns to darkness, and the glassblower wakes sharply tonight crying, "Who? Who?"

  Thomas Pynchon

  Dream, Night, Light

  "Gravity's Rainbow". Book by Thomas Pynchon, 1973.

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• You don't care what people think. You don't see your beloved's faults, the slight stinginess, the bit of carelessness, the occasional streak of meanness. You don't mind that he is beneath you socially, educationally, financially, and morally--that's the worst, I think, deficient morals. (Saving Fish From Drowning)

  Amy Tan

  Thinking, People, Mind

  Amy Tan (2012). “Saving Fish From Drowning”, p.15, HarperCollins UK

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• The moral of Snow White is never eat apples.

  Daniel Handler

  White, Apples, Snow

  "The Miserable Mill". Book by Daniel Handler, 2000.

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