#morals

Montaigne said long ago: "Were I not to follow the straight road for its straightness, I should follow it for having found by experience that in the end it is commonly the happiest and most useful track." The doctrine of interest rightly understood is not then new, but among the Americans of our time it finds universal acceptance; it has become popular there; you may trace it at the bottom of all their actions, you will remark it in all they say. ↗

— Alexis de Tocqueville

#experience

As I have pointed out, it is the Christian tradition that is the most fundamental element in Western culture. It lies at the base not only of Western religion, but also of Western morals and Western social idealism. ↗

— Christopher Dawson

#base #christian #christian tradition #culture #element

Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad. ↗

— Denis Diderot

#asian #bad #countries #european #good

There are some liberals eager to embrace a culture void of morals, but the majority of America is made up of honest, hard-working families who turned out in droves to protect the traditional way of life. ↗

— John Doolittle

#culture #droves #eager #embrace #families

Of course poets have morals and manners of their own, and custom is no argument with them. ↗

— Thomas Hardy

#course #custom #manners #morals #own

I think the kids today need to hear more about morals and values. ↗

— Isaac Hayes

#hear #i #i think #kids #morals

Is it possible that future generations will regard our present agribuisness and eating practices in much the same way we now view Nero's entertainments or Mengele's experiments? My own initial reaction is that such a comparison is hysterical, extreme - and yet the reason it seems extreme to me appears to be that I believe animals are less morally important than human behings; and when it comes to defending such a belief, even to myself, I have to acknowledge that (a) I have an obvious selfish interest in this belief, since I like to eat certain kinds of animals and want to be able to keep doing it, and (b) I haven't succeeded in working out any sort of personal ethical system in which the belief is truly defensible instead of just selfishly convenient. ↗

— David Foster Wallace

#animal-rights #ethics #morals #experience

All are agreed, that the increase of learning and good morals are great blessings to society. ↗

— Joseph Lancaster

#blessings #good #great #increase #learning

True politics cannot take a single step without first paying homage to morals, and while politics itself is a difficult art, its combination with morals is no art at all; for morals cuts the Gordian knot which politics cannot solve as soon as the two are in conflict. ↗

— Immanuel Kant

#philosophy #politics #art

There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel. ↗

— Vladimir Lenin

#expedience #just #just because #may #morals