#justification

Bonhoeffer examined and dismissed a number of approaches to dealing with evil. "Reasonable people," he said, think that "with a little reason, they can pull back together a structure that has come apart at the joints." Then there are the ethical "fanatics" who "believe that they can face the power of evil with the purity of their will and their principles." Men of"conscience" become overwhelmed because the "countless respectable and seductive disguises and masks in which evil approaches them make their conscience anxious and unsure until they finally content themselves with an assuaged conscience instead of a good conscience." They must "deceive their own conscience in order not to despair." Finally there are some who retreat to a "private virtuousness. Such people neither steal, nor murder,nor commit adultery, but do good according to their abilities. but... they must close their eyes and ears to the injustice around them. Only at the cost of self-deception can they keep their private blamelessness clean from the stains of responsible action in the world. In all that they do, what they fail to do will not let them rest. ↗

— Eric Metaxas

#dealing-with-evil #ethics #injustice #moral-responsibility #self-justification

Eroticism has its own moral justification because it says that pleasure is enough for me; it is a statement of the individual's sovereignty. ↗

— Mario Vargas Llosa

#enough #eroticism #individual #justification #me

The talent for self-justification is surely the finest flower of human evolution, the greatest achievement of the human brain. When it comes to justifying actions, every human being acquires the intelligence of an Einstein, the imagination of a Shakespeare, and the subtlety of a Jesuit. ↗

— Michael Foley

#age

Her anger said, as anger is apt to say, that God was with her— that all heaven, though it were crowded with spirits watching them, must be on her side. ↗

— George Eliot

#self-justification #anger

Most people are not prepared to have their minds changed," he said. "And I think they know in their hearts that other people are just the same, and one of the reasons people become angry when they argue is that they realize just that, as they trot out their excuses." "Excuses, eh?" Well, if this ain't cynicism, what is?" Erens snorted. "Yes, excuses," he said, with what Erens thought might just have been a trace of bitterness. "I strongly suspect the things people believe in are usually just what they instinctively feel is right; the excuses, the justifications, the things you're supposed to argue about, come later. They're the least important part of the belief. That's why you can destroy them, win an argument, prove the other person wrong, and still they believe what they did in the first place." He looked at Erens. "You've attacked the wrong thing. ↗

— Iain M. Banks

#belief #erens #excuses #instinct #justifications

My justification is that most people my age spend a lot of time thinking about what they're going to do for the next five or ten years. The time they spend thinking about their life, I just spend drinking. ↗

— Amy Winehouse

#age #drinking #five #going #i

The man of science has learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification. ↗

— Thomas Huxley

#faith #justification #learned #man #science

There is no real justification for a requirement that a budget of any sort should be balanced, except as a rallying point for those who seek to hamstring government. ↗

— William Vickrey

#balanced #budget #except #government #justification

It is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions. ↗

— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

#justification #wrong #experience

Any work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line. ↗

— Joseph Conrad

#art #aspires #carry #condition #every