{
  "type": "book",
  "site": {
    "name": "Leafy Quotes",
    "language": "en",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com"
  },
  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "title": "Ethics",
  "slug": "ethics",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-l-mackie/ethics",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-l-mackie/ethics.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-l-mackie/ethics.md",
  "author": {
    "name": "J. L. Mackie",
    "slug": "j-l-mackie",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-l-mackie"
  },
  "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin/jl-mackie/ethics_978-01-4196-009-8.jpg",
  "quotes_count": 11,
  "quotes": [
    {
      "id": "f576f1dc-f4e6-4a61-b418-af959afd9d95",
      "slug": "different-people-have",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-l-mackie/ethics/different-people-have",
      "text": "Different people have irresolvably different views of the good life — not only at different periods of history and in different forms of society, but even in our own culture at the present time.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "happiness",
          "slug": "happiness",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness"
        },
        {
          "name": "values",
          "slug": "values",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/values"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._L._Mackie#Ethics:_Inventing_Right_and_Wrong_(1977)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:51"
    },
    {
      "id": "dfbc29b4-5930-4903-9b53-3d990b395a73",
      "slug": "it-is-in-imaginative",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-l-mackie/ethics/it-is-in-imaginative",
      "text": "It is in imaginative literature — including those parts of it which pass for history and biography — that what may be good in human life is concretely represented.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "reading",
          "slug": "reading",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._L._Mackie#Ethics:_Inventing_Right_and_Wrong_(1977)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:51"
    },
    {
      "id": "cb87db0b-79f7-47c4-84ad-ee48c3710a18",
      "slug": "life-is-fortunately",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-l-mackie/ethics/life-is-fortunately",
      "text": "Life is, fortunately, not a continuous application of game theory.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "humor",
          "slug": "humor",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor"
        },
        {
          "name": "life",
          "slug": "life",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._L._Mackie#Ethics:_Inventing_Right_and_Wrong_(1977)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:51"
    },
    {
      "id": "c637fc95-79d7-4bb8-bfd0-2740c0bb84db",
      "slug": "the-happiness-with",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-l-mackie/ethics/the-happiness-with",
      "text": "The happiness with which I am, inevitably, most concerned is my own, and next that of those who are in some way closely related to me. Indeed, for any reasonably benevolent person these cannot be separated: he will find much of his own happiness in the happiness of those for whom he cares, or in what he and they do together, where the enjoyment of each contributes so essentially to that of the other(s) that it will be more natural to say 'We had a good...' (whatever it was) than to speak of a mere sum of individual enjoyments.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "love",
          "slug": "love",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love"
        },
        {
          "name": "happiness",
          "slug": "happiness",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._L._Mackie#Ethics:_Inventing_Right_and_Wrong_(1977)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:51"
    },
    {
      "id": "ace068e3-7ea8-464d-89fa-193fa336c8aa",
      "slug": "though-we-admit",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-l-mackie/ethics/though-we-admit",
      "text": "Though we admit that the way to hell may be paved with good intentions, we are very sure that the way to heaven is not paved with bad ones.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "humor",
          "slug": "humor",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor"
        },
        {
          "name": "morality",
          "slug": "morality",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._L._Mackie#Ethics:_Inventing_Right_and_Wrong_(1977)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:51"
    },
    {
      "id": "91dee1dc-8f75-4b4f-9723-0e99299d43fe",
      "slug": "the-facts-have",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-l-mackie/ethics/the-facts-have",
      "text": "The facts have to be determined by empirical evidence, and our thinking has then to conform to the facts, not the facts to our thinking",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "truth",
          "slug": "truth",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth"
        },
        {
          "name": "thinking",
          "slug": "thinking",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._L._Mackie#Ethics:_Inventing_Right_and_Wrong_(1977)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:51"
    },
    {
      "id": "72074237-c2a3-4bd0-8c73-0e42e265ecbd",
      "slug": "if-we-admire",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-l-mackie/ethics/if-we-admire",
      "text": "If we admire and enjoy the flourishing of human life, we shall naturally delight also in the flourishing of animal life.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "life",
          "slug": "life",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life"
        },
        {
          "name": "animals",
          "slug": "animals",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._L._Mackie#Ethics:_Inventing_Right_and_Wrong_(1977)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:51"
    },
    {
      "id": "3a030706-ea28-4922-8840-6cdc9d909ea6",
      "slug": "hardly-any-part",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-l-mackie/ethics/hardly-any-part",
      "text": "Hardly any part of anyone's conduct concerns only himself.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "responsibility",
          "slug": "responsibility",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._L._Mackie#Ethics:_Inventing_Right_and_Wrong_(1977)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:51"
    },
    {
      "id": "07d64751-9e30-4b36-b1e3-fee38a169184",
      "slug": "morality-is-not",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-l-mackie/ethics/morality-is-not",
      "text": "Morality is not to be discovered but to be made: we have to decide what moral views to adopt, what moral stands to take.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "morality",
          "slug": "morality",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._L._Mackie#Ethics:_Inventing_Right_and_Wrong_(1977)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:51"
    },
    {
      "id": "10f632a8-989c-430d-bae1-3a54e01f3d56",
      "slug": "the-denial-that",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-l-mackie/ethics/the-denial-that",
      "text": "The denial that there are objective values does not commit one to any particular view about what moral statements mean, and certainly not to the view that they are equivalent to subjective reports.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "morality",
          "slug": "morality",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality"
        },
        {
          "name": "values",
          "slug": "values",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/values"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._L._Mackie#Ethics:_Inventing_Right_and_Wrong_(1977)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:50"
    },
    {
      "id": "08813f16-fab8-4de7-86af-c4ede09c7aa0",
      "slug": "the-kinds-of-behaviour",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-l-mackie/ethics/the-kinds-of-behaviour",
      "text": "The kinds of behaviour to which moral values and disvalues are ascribed are indeed part of the furniture of the world, and so are the natural, descriptive differences between them; but not, perhaps, their differences in value.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "morality",
          "slug": "morality",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality"
        },
        {
          "name": "values",
          "slug": "values",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/values"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._L._Mackie#Ethics:_Inventing_Right_and_Wrong_(1977)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:50"
    }
  ]
}