#oral

There is a set of religious, or rather moral, writings which teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness, and vice to misery in this world. A very wholesome and comfortable doctrine, and to which we have but one objection, namely, that it is not true. ↗

— Francois Fenelon

#comfortable #doctrine #happiness #misery #moral

It is always incorrect to assume you can know what someone's moral convictions are based on their philosophical theories. ↗

— Stanley Fish

#assume #based #convictions #incorrect #know

Books follow morals, and not morals books. ↗

— Theophile Gautier

#follow #morals

The essence of morality is a questioning about morality; and the decisive move of human life is to use ceaselessly all light to look for the origin of the opposition between good and evil. ↗

— Georges Bataille

#between #ceaselessly #decisive #essence #evil

We are naive and moralistic women. We are human beings who find politics a blight upon the human condition. And do not know how one copes with it except through politics. ↗

— Kate Millett

#blight #condition #copes #except #find

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#honor #integrity #moral-courage #obligation #truth

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

The popular concept–that we should each determine our own morality–is based on the belief that the spiritual realm is nothing at all like the rest of the world. Does anyone really believe that? For many years after each of the morning and evening Sunday services I remained in the auditorium for another hour to field questions. Hundreds of people stayed for the give-and-take discussions. One of the most frequent statements I heard was that 'Every person has to define right and wrong for him- or herself.' I always responded to the speakers by asking, 'Is there anyone in the world right now doing things you believe they should stop doing no matter what they personally believe about the correctness of their behavior?' They would invariable say, 'Yes, of course.' Then I would ask, “Doesn’t that mean that you do believe there is some kind of moral reality that is "there" that is not defined by us, that must be abided by regardless of what a person feels or thinks?' Almost always, the response to that question was silence, either a thoughtful or a grumpy one. ↗

— Timothy Keller

#postmodernism #age

It is a well-known fact that very often, putting the period of boyhood out of the argument, the older we grow the more cynical and hardened we become; indeed, many of us are only saved by timely death from moral petrification, if not from moral corruption. ↗

— H. Rider Haggard

#amorality #corruption #cynicism #growing-old #hopelessness

If it is not tempered by compassion, and empathy, reason can lead men and women into a moral void. (95) ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#compassion #empathy #immorality #morality #reason