#morality

Therefore, let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you. ↗

— Doreen Valiente

#virtues #wicca #beauty

I tell Allah I love Him immensely, immensely. But I tell Him I cannot be better, because of how the world is. ↗

— Katherine Boo

#morality #beauty

As he grew older, which was mostly in my absence, my firstborn son, Alexander, became ever more humorous and courageous. There came a time, as the confrontation with the enemies of our civilization became more acute, when he sent off various applications to enlist in the armed forces. I didn't want to be involved in this decision either way, especially since I was being regularly taunted for not having 'sent' any of my children to fight in the wars of resistance that I supported. (As if I could 'send' anybody, let alone a grown-up and tough and smart young man: what moral imbeciles the 'anti-war' people have become.) ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#civilisation #courage #enemies #fathers #humour

Jan could not recall ever seeing a creature more beautiful, though there nagged somewhere at the back of his mind the notion that she ought to have seemed hideous. Why? For she was pure, admirably pure, without a twinge of conscience or shame. ↗

— Meredith Ann Pierce

#immorality #shameless #beauty

Is it a small thing to quench the flames of hell with the holy tears of pity -- to unbind the martyr from the stake -- break all the chains -- put out the fires of civil war -- stay the sword of the fanatic, and tear the bloody hands of the Church from the white throat of Science? Is it a small thing to make men truly free -- to destroy the dogmas of ignorance, prejudice and power -- the poisoned fables of superstition, and drive from the beautiful face of the earth the fiend of fear? ↗

— Robert G. Ingersoll

#freedom #goodness #kindness #liberty #morality

Men, some to business take, some to pleasure take; but every woman is at heart a rake ↗

— Alexander Pope

#morality #women #business

Sometimes carrying the burden of an upsetting truth, and hiding it, is actually a gift you give to someone else. You bear that burden, so they don’t have to, in a situation where telling them will change nothing. ↗

— Cassandra Clare

#care #honesty #love #moral #morality

A man should always have these two rules in readiness. First, to do only what the reason of your ruling and legislating faculties suggest for the service of man. Second, to change your opinion whenever anyone at hand sets you right and unsettles you in an opinion, but this change of opinion should come only because you are persuaded that something is just or to the public advantage, not because it appears pleasant or increases your reputation. ↗

— Marcus Aurelius

#morality #change

If laws were real they wouldn’t need to be enforced, because if they were real they couldn’t be broken. Try breaking the law of gravity. Now that’s a law. Laws made by man are rules reflecting the current status of his moral codes. As he alters and whittles away his morality, casting bits and pieces aside, his codes change to reflect it. ↗

— Boyd Rice

#morality #change

The number one responsibility for each of us is to change ourselves with hope that others will follow. ↗

— Ron Paul

#morality #politics #change