#morality

Triviality is evil - triviality, that is, in the form of consciousness and mind that adapts itself to the world as it is, that obeys the principle of inertia. And this principle of inertia truly is what is radically evil. ↗

— Theodor W. Adorno

#inertia #morality #triviality #metaphysics

It is morally appalling for the so called liberators of South Sudan to keep liberating their own people from a war that has already been won. ↗

— Duop Chak Wuol

#morality #republic #war #liberalism

We care about moral issues, nobility, decency, happiness, goodness—the issues that matter in the real world, but which can only be addressed, in their purity, in fiction. ↗

— Orson Scott Card

#literature #morality #on-fiction #nobility

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey 'people.' People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war. If it is held that the instinct for preserving the species should always be obeyed at the expense of other instincts, whence do we derive this rule of precedence? To listen to that instinct speaking in its own case and deciding in its own favour would be rather simple minded. Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of all the rest. By the very act of listening to one rather than to others we have already prejudged the case. If we did not bring to the examination of our instincts a knowledge of their comparative dignity we could never learn it from them. And that knowledge cannot itself be instinctive: the judge cannot be one of the parties judged: or, if he is, the decision is worthless and there is no ground for placing preservation of the species above self-preservation or sexual appetite. ↗

— C.S. Lewis

#morality #self-preservation #values #self-knowledge

If you can't do something smart, do something right. ↗

— Joss Whedon

#morality #morals

Life is two things. Life is morality – life is adventure. Squire and master. Adventure rules, and morality looks up the trains in the Bradshaw. Morality tells you what is right, and adventure moves you. If morality means anything it means keeping bounds, respecting implications, respecting implicit bounds. If individuality means anything it means breaking bounds – adventure. ↗

— H.G. Wells

#bounds #individuality #life #morality #wells

A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality. ↗

— Winston Churchill

#consequences #dangers #does #human #man

Morality in the general is well enough known by men, but the particular refinements of virtue are unknown by most persons; thus the majority of parents, without knowing it and without intending it, give very bad examples to their children. ↗

— Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

#example #morality #parenting #young #education

Modern morality and manners suppress all natural instincts, keep people ignorant of the facts of nature and make them fighting drunk on bogey tales. ↗

— Aleister Crowley

#drunk #facts #fighting #ignorant #instincts

It's never acceptable to target civilians. It violates the Geneva Accords, it violates the international law of war and it violates all principles of morality. ↗

— Alan Dershowitz

#accords #civilians #geneva #international #international law