#oral

Ethics is a dream. ↗

— Charles Baxter

#morality #philosophy #dreams

Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have never seen before, and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn't touched. I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had been rent. I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror--of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision--he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath: The horror! The horror! ↗

— Joseph Conrad

#morality #struggle #the-horror #change

Imperfection is the doorway for which perfection may step through...perfection must be enforced, it must be soldered into the eyes of the blind, it must be severed methodically and sewn into the very warmth that keeps at bay the cold of the night. Imperfection is the fire that sets alight the dark passage through which perfection wanders...and we must embrace it all, we must have purpose to survive. ↗

— Dave Matthes

#death #dread #forgiveness #goal #greed

While the restraining force of a higher authority was denounced in school, and the moral basis for decrying crime as immoral was discarded, moral relativism also demolished the ethical foundations of the very laws that criminals were breaking. If there is no Creator that imparts rights, an individual has no rights at birth. The only rights a person may have are determined by majority opinion. ↗

— Dan Greenup

#death

The first right on earth is the right of the ego. Man's first duty is to himself. His moral law is never to place his prime goal within the persons of others. His moral obligation is to do what he wishes, provided his wish does not depend primarily upon other men. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#men

Sustainable change, after all, depends not upon compliance with external mandates or blind adherence to regulation, but rather upon the pursuit of the greater good. ↗

— Douglas B. Reeves

#good #lead #leadership #mandate #morality

Not forever does the bulbul sing In balmy shades of bowers, Not forever lasts the spring Nor ever blossom the flowers. Not forever reigneth joy, Sets the sun on days of bliss, Friendships not forever last, They know not life, who know not this. ↗

— Khushwant Singh

#letting-go #life #life-changing #life-lessons #moving-on

That's your cruelty, that's what's mean and selfish about you. If you loved your brother, you'd give him a job he didn't deserve, precisely because he didn't deserve it--that would be true love and kindness and brotherhood. Else what's love for? If a man deserves a job, there's no virtue in giving it to him. Virtue is the giving of the undeserved. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#philosophical #virtue #love