#morals

Am I right in suggesting that ordinary life is a mean between these extremes, that the noble man devotes his material wealth to lofty ends, the advancement of science, or art, or some such true ideal; and that the base man does the opposite by concentrating all his abilities on the amassing of wealth?' Exactly; that is the real distinction between the artist and the bourgeois, or, if you prefer it, between the gentleman and the cad. Money, and the things money can buy, have no value, for there is no question of creation, but only of exchange. Houses, lands, gold, jewels, even existing works of art, may be tossed about from one hand to another; they are so, constantly. But neither you nor I can write a sonnet; and what we have, our appreciation of art, we did not buy. We inherited the germ of it, and we developed it by the sweat of our brows. The possession of money helped us, but only by giving us time and opportunity and the means of travel. Anyhow, the principle is clear; one must sacrifice the lower to the higher, and, as the Greeks did with their oxen, one must fatten and bedeck the lower, so that it may be the worthier offering. ↗

— Aleister Crowley

#money #morals #philosophy #poor #rich

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

The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but "Can they suffer? ↗

— Jeremy Bentham

#moral #vegetarian #morals

I have raised the morals and sobriety of the people. ↗

— James Larkin

#morals #people #raised #sobriety

The higher the building the lower the morals. ↗

— Noel Coward

#building #higher #lower #morals

I always had a struggle, which I still do, when you're playing a character and it's not necessarily your morals or your values. You're playing a character, but the way the media will sometimes ask you if these are your opinions, you know - they make you responsible for that, and I take issue with it because I don't believe in censorship. ↗

— Katey Sagal

#ask #because #believe #censorship #character

And a human being whose life is nurtured in an advantage which has accrued from the disadvantage of other human beings, and who prefers that this should remain as it is, is a human being by definition only, having much more in common with the bedbug, the tapeworm, the cancer, and the scavengers of the deep sea. ↗

— James Agee

#morality #morals #right #social-justice #society

It seems it doesn't pay to be good anymore, when people are short-changing you for evil. ↗

— Anthony Liccione

#evil #good-samaritan #intentions #morals #short-changing

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

Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will - his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals. ↗

— Albert Schweitzer

#cease #environment #exercise #faith #his