#morality

She had wandered, without rule or guidance, into a moral wilderness... Her intellect and heart had their home, as it were, in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods... The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers—stern and wild ones—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss. ↗

— Nathaniel Hawthorne

#intellect

There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as 'moral indignation,' which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue. ↗

— Erich Fromm

#double-standards #envy #hate #indignation #morality

What is law? Is it what is on the books, or what is actually enacted and obeyed in a society? Or is law what must be enacted and obeyed, whether or not it is on the books, if things are to go right? ↗

— Bernhard Schlink

#law #morality #ethics

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

But the point is this Monsieur...the reason why Madame complains of you is not because of the immorality in itself; but because, so she tells me, you make immorality delicious. ↗

— Daphne du Maurier

#immorality #music #art

For children to take morality seriously they must be in the presence of adults who take morality seriously. And with their own eyes they must see adults take morality seriously. ↗

— William Bennett

#eyes #morality #must #own #presence

If the Great Way perishes there will morality and duty. When cleverness and knowledge arise great lies will flourish. When relatives fall out with one another there will be filial duty and love. When states are in confusion there will be faithful servants. ↗

— Lao Tzu

#arise #cleverness #confusion #duty #faithful

In a constitutional democracy the moral content of law must be given by the morality of the framer or legislator, never by the morality of the judge. ↗

— Robert Bork

#content #democracy #given #judge #law

A person is born with desires of the eyes and ears, and a liking for beautiful sights and sounds. If he gives way to them, they will lead him to immorality and lack of restriction, and any ritual principles and propriety will be abandoned. ↗

— Xun Zi

#any #beautiful #born #desires #ears

While some of them acknowledge the obligation of natural morality in their mode of conducting their cases, and preserve their individual character as gentlemen, there are others who acknowledge no law, human or divine, but the law of Scotland. ↗

— George Combe

#cases #character #conducting #divine #gentlemen