#morals

Politics have no relation to morals. ↗

— Niccolo Machiavelli

#morals #relation

In morals what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness; in religion what begins in fear usually ends in fanaticism. Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the beginning of all evil. ↗

— Anna Jameson

#begins #either #ends #evil #fanaticism

You're trying to be tricky. What's morality?" "It's the difference between what's right and what you can rationalize." "Must be a human thing." "Exactly. ↗

— Christopher Moore

#humans #morals

Do you really mean to tell me the only reason you try to be good is to gain God's approval and reward, or to avoid his disapproval and punishment? That's not morality, that's just sucking up, apple-polishing, looking over your shoulder at the great surveillance camera in the sky, or the still small wiretap inside your head, monitoring your every move, even your every base though. ↗

— Richard Dawkins

#morality #morals #morals

It has been my fate in a long life of production to be credited chiefly with the equivocal virtue of industry, a quality so excellent in morals, so little satisfactory in art. ↗

— Margaret Oliphant

#been #chiefly #credited #excellent #fate

Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners. ↗

— Laurence Sterne

#guides #manners #morals #others #our

Books follow morals, and not morals books. ↗

— Theophile Gautier

#follow #morals

Since its appearance the view that prostitution is a product of capitalism has gained ground enormously. And as, in addition, preachers still complain that the good old morals have decayed, and accuse modern culture of having led to loose living, everyone is convinced that all sexual wrongs represent a symptom of decadence peculiar to our age. ↗

— Ludwig von Mises

#morals #sex #vice #age

We middles see the world in shades of grey rather than in the clear blacks and whites of committed animal activists and their equally vociferous opponents ↗

— Hal Herzog

#morals #philosophy #equality

As readers, we are seldom interested in the fine sentiments of a lesson learnt; we seldom care about the good manners of morals. Repentance puts an end to conversation; forgiveness becomes the stuff of moralistic tracts. Revenge - bloodthirsty, justice-hungry revenge - is the very essence of romance, lying at the heart of much of the best fiction. ↗

— Alberto Manguel

#forgiveness #morals #readers #repentance #revenge