Morality Quotes - Page 34

• Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it?

  George Washington

  Justice, Religion, Doe

  George Washington, United States. President (1789-1797 : Washington) (1847). “Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States of America: Published in September, 1796”, p.9

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• May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants-while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.

  George Washington

  Children, Father, Light

  George Washington, John Clement Fitzpatrick, David Maydole Matteson (1792). “The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799”, p.93

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• Independence can be trusted nowhere but with the people in mass. They are inherently independent of all but moral law.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Independent, Law, People

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.317

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• Piety, religion, and morality are intimately connected with the well being of that state, and indispensable to the administration of civil justice.

  Joseph Story

  Justice, Religion, Administration

  Joseph Story (1842). “A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States”, p.260

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• I see no clear reason why the doctrine of self-interest properly understood should turn men away from religious beliefs.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Religious, Men, Self

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2004). “Tocqueville: Democracy in America”, p.615, Library of America

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• The tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications, I behold the surest pledges, that as on one side, no local prejudices, or attachments; no seperate views, nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests: so, on another, that the foundations of our National policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality...

  George Washington

  Party, Character, Eye

  George Washington's Inaugural Address, www.archives.gov. April 30, 1789.

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• An America that is militarily and economically strong is not enough. The world must see an America that is morally strong with a creed and a vision. This is what has led us to dare and achieve. For us, values count.

  Ronald Reagan

  Strong, America, Religion

  United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan), Ronald Reagan (1983). “Ronald Reagan”

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• Politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality's foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. We need religion as a guide. We need it because we are imperfect, and our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they're sinners can bring to democracy the tolerance it requires in order to survive.

  Ronald Reagan

  Humble, Government, Order

  Remarks at a Dallas Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast, delivered 23 August 1984 at Reunion Arena, Dallas, TX

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• [Our goal] is to help revive America's traditional values: faith, family, neighborhood, work and freedom. Government has no business enforcing these values but neither must it seek, as it did in the recent past, to suppress or replace them. That only robbed us of our tiller and set us adrift. Helping to restore these values will bring new strength, direction and dignity to our lives and to the life of our nation. It's on these values that we'll best build our future.

  Ronald Reagan

  Past, Government, America

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• I have been one who believes that abortion is the taking of a human life . . . . The fact that they could not resolve the issue of when life begins was a finding in and of itself. If we don't know, then shouldn't we morally opt on the side that it is life? If you came upon an immobile body and you yourself could not determine whether it was dead or alive, I think that you would decide to consider it alive until somebody could prove it was dead. You wouldn't get a shovel and start covering it up. And I think we should do the same thing with regard to abortion.

  Ronald Reagan

  Believe, Thinking, Issues

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• And there is the matter of abortion. We must with calmness and resolve help the vast majority of our fellow Americans understand that the more than 112 million abortions performed in America in 1980 amount to a great moral evil, an assault on the sacredness of human life.

  Ronald Reagan

  America, Evil, Abortion

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• We have God's promise that what we give will be given back many times over, so let us go forth from here and rekindle the fire of our faith. Let our wisdom be vindicated by our deeds. We are told in II Timothy that when our work is done, we can say, ``We have fought the good fight. We have finished the race. We have kept the faith.'' This is an evidence of it.

  Ronald Reagan

  Fighting, Fire, Race

  Ronald Reagan (2004). “Speaking My Mind: Selected Speeches”, p.138, Simon and Schuster

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• It's said that prayer can move mountains. Well, it's certainly moved the hearts and minds of Americans in their times of trial and helped them to achieve a society that, for all its imperfections, is still the envy of the world and the last, best hope of mankind.

  Ronald Reagan

  Prayer, Moving, Heart

  United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan), United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan)., Ronald Reagan, United States. Office of the Federal Register (1983). “Ronald Reagan”

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• What the individual can do is to give a fine example, and to have the courage to uphold ethical values .. in a society of cynics.

  Albert Einstein

  Giving, Words Of Wisdom, Example

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• The Nuremberg Trial of the German war criminals was tacitly based on the recognition of the principle: criminal actions cannot be excused if committed on government orders; conscience supersedes the authority of the law of the state.

  Albert Einstein

  War, Order, Law

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.283, Princeton University Press

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• The morality of an action depends on the motive from which we act. If I fling half a crown to a beggar with intention to break his head and he picks it up and buy victuals with it, the physical effect is good. But with respect to me the action is very wrong.

  Samuel Johnson

  Crowns, Half, Action

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Edmond Malone (1824). “The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished”, p.349

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• It's natural to think that living things must be the handiwork of a designer. But it was also natural to think that the sun went around the earth. Overcoming naive impressions to figure out how things really work is one of humanity's highest callings.

  Steven Pinker

  Science, Thinking, Humanity

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• I'll live for me and for other real people. Until some god gives me five minutes of their time...they deserve none of mine.

  Matt Dillahunty

  Real, People, Giving

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• With nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Politics, Individual, Found

  Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

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• Music directly imitates the passions or states of the soul...when one listens to music that imitates a certain passion, he becomes imbued withthe same passion; and if over a long time he habitually listens to music that rouses ignoble passions, his whole character will be shaped to an ignoble form.

  Aristotle

  Music, Passion, Character

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• In nothing do humans approach so nearly to the gods as doing good to others.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Health, Religion, Liberty

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• Without doubt the greatest injury of all was done by basing morals on myth. For, sooner or later, myth is recognized for what it is, and disappears. Then morality loses the foundation on which it has been built.

  Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel

  Wisdom, Doubt, Religion

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• No matter how worthy the cause, it is robbery, theft, and injustice to confiscate the property of one person and give it to another to whom it does not belong.

  Walter E. Williams

  Giving, Religion, Liberty

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• There is only one justification for having sinned, and that is to be glad of it.

  H. L. Mencken

  Religion, Liberty, Justification

  "A little book in C major".

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• There is something even more valuable to civilization than wisdom, and that is character.

  H. L. Mencken

  Character, Civilization, Religion

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