# Quotes about morality - Quotes: 85 - Authors: 21 - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality ## Quotes > The example and reputation of Constantine seemed to countenance the delay of baptism. Future tyrants were encouraged to believe that the innocent blood which they might shed in a long reign would instantly be washed away in the waters of regeneration; and the abuse of religion dangerously undermined the foundations of moral virtue. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > [T]he cause of virtue derived very feeble support from the influence of the Pagan superstition. Under these discouraging circumstances a prudent magistrate might observe with pleasure the progress of a religion which diffused among the people a pure, benevolent, and universal system of ethics, adapted to every duty and every condition of life, recommended as the will and reason of the supreme Deity, and enforced by the sanction of eternal rewards or punishments. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > ...in the prosecution of a favourite scheme, the best of men, satisfied with the rectitude of their intentions, are subject to forget the bounds of moderation... The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > It was easier to vanquish the Goths than to eradicate the public vices. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants. Reflections on the Revolution in France Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Prejudice is of ready application in the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision sceptical, puzzled, and unresolved. Prejudice renders a man's virtue his habit, and not a series of unconnected acts. Through just prejudice, his duty becomes a part of his nature. Reflections on the Revolution in France Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint. Reflections on the Revolution in France Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [wisdom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom.md) > Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver. Reflections on the Revolution in France Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Unquestionably it is a very common phrase of modern intellectualism to say that the morality of one age can be entirely different to the morality of another. And like a great many other phrases of modern intellectualism, it means literally nothing at all. [G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/unquestionably-it-is-a-very.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > I do not, therefore, say that the word "progress" is unmeaning; I say it is unmeaning without the previous definition of a moral doctrine, and that it can only be applied to groups of persons who hold that doctrine in common. Progress is not an illegitimate word, but it is logically evident that it is illegitimate for us. It is a sacred word, a word which could only rightly be used by rigid believers and in the ages of faith. [G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/i-do-not-therefore.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > The only kind of simplicity worth preserving is the simplicity of the heart, the simplicity which accepts and enjoys. There may be a reasonable doubt as to what system preserves this; there can surely be no doubt that a system of simplicity destroys it. There is more simplicity in the man who eats caviar on impulse than in the man who eats grape-nuts on principle. The chief error of these people is to be found in the very phrase to which they are most attached—"plain living and high thinking." These people do not stand in need of, will not be improved by, plain living and high thinking. They stand in need of the contrary. They would be improved by high living and plain thinking. A little high living (I say, having a full sense of responsibility, a little high living) would teach them the force and meaning of the human festivities, of the banquet that has gone on from the beginning of the world. It would teach them the historic fact that the artificial is, if anything, older than the natural. It would teach them that the loving-cup is as old as any hunger. It would teach them that ritualism is older than any religion. And a little plain thinking would teach them how harsh and fanciful are the mass of their own ethics, how very civilized and very complicated must be the brain of the Tolstoyan who really believes it to be evil to love one's country and wicked to strike a blow. [G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/the-only-kind.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Every one of the popular modern phrases and ideals is a dodge in order to shirk the problem of what is good. We are fond of talking about "liberty"; that, as we talk of it, is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. We are fond of talking about "progress"; that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. We are fond of talking about "education"; that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. The modern man says, "Let us leave all these arbitrary standards and embrace liberty." This is, logically rendered, "Let us not decide what is good, but let it be considered good not to decide it." He says, "Away with your old moral formulae; I am for progress." This, logically stated, means, "Let us not settle what is good; but let us settle whether we are getting more of it." He says, "Neither in religion nor morality, my friend, lie the hopes of the race, but in education." This, clearly expressed, means, "We cannot decide what is good, but let us give it to our children." [G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/every-one-of-the.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > It was, in brief, that conservatives ideals were bad, not because they were conservative, but because they were ideals. Every ideal prevented men from judging justly the particular case; every moral generalization oppressed the individual; the golden rule was there was no golden rule. And the objection to this is simply that it pretends to free men, but really restrains them from doing the only thing that men want to do. What is the good of telling a community that it has every liberty except the liberty to make laws? The liberty to make laws is what constitutes a free people. And what is the good of telling a man (or a philosopher) that he has every liberty except the liberty to make generalizations. Making generalizations is what makes him a man. In short, when Mr.Shaw forbids men to have strict moral ideals, he is acting like one who should forbid them to have children. The saying that "the golden rule is that there is no golden rule," can, indeed, be simply answered by being turned round. That there is no golden rule is itself a golden rule, or rather it is much worth than a golden rule; It is an Iron Rule; a fetter on the first movement of a man. [G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/it-was-in-brief.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md) > I had always heard it maintained by my father, and was myself convinced, that the object of education should be to form the strongest possible associations of the salutary class; associations of pleasure with all things beneficial to the great whole, and of pain with all things hurtful to it. Autobiography · p. 136 Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > He blamed as severely what he thought a bad action, when the motive was a feeling of duty, as if the agents had been consciously evil doers. He would not have accepted as a plea in mitigation for inquisitors, that they sincerely believed burning heretics to be an obligation of conscience. But though he did not allow honesty of purpose to soften his disapprobation of actions, it had its full effect on his estimation of characters. No one prized conscientiousness and rectitude of intention more highly, or was more incapable of valuing any person in whom he did not feel assurance of it. Autobiography · p. 49 Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [character](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/character.md) > My father's moral inculcations were at all times mainly those of the "Socratici viri;" justice, temperance (to which he gave a very extended application), veracity, perseverance, readiness to encounter pain and especially labour; regard for the public good; estimation of persons according to their merits, and of things according to their intrinsic usefulness; a life of exertion in contradiction to one of self-indulgent sloth. These and other moralities he conveyed in brief sentences, uttered as occasion arose, of grave exhortation, or stern reprobation and contempt. > > But though direct moral teaching does much, indirect does more; and the effect my father produced on my character, did not depend solely on what he said or did with that direct object, but also, and still more, on what manner of man he was. Autobiography · p. 47 Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [character](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/character.md) > Though they may think the proof incomplete that the universe is a work of design, and though they assuredly disbelieve that it can have an Author and Governor who is absolute in power as well as perfect in goodness, they have that which constitutes the principal worth of all religions whatever, an ideal conception of a Perfect Being, to which they habitually refer as the guide of their conscience; and this ideal of Good is usually far nearer to perfection than the objective Deity of those, who think themselves obliged to find absolute goodness in the author of a world so crowded with suffering and so deformed by injustice as ours. Autobiography · p. 46 Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > My previous education had been, in a certain sense, already a course of Benthamism. The Benthamic standard of "the greatest happiness" was that which I had always been taught to apply; I was even familiar with an abstract discussion of it, forming an episode in an unpublished dialogue on Government, written by my father on the Platonic model. Yet in the first pages of Bentham it burst upon me with all the force of novelty. What thus impressed me was the chapter in which Bentham passed judgment on the common modes of reasoning in morals and legislation, deduced from phrases like "the law of nature," "right reason," "the moral sense," "natural rectitude," and the like, and characterized them as dogmatism in disguise, imposing its sentiments upon others under cover of sounding expressions which convey no reason for the sentiment, but set up the sentiment as its own reason. It had not struck me before, that Bentham's principle put an end to all this. The feeling rushed upon me, that all previous moralists were superseded, and that here indeed was the commencement of a new era in thought. Autobiography · p. 64 Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > In my education, as in that of everyone, the moral influences, which are so much more important than all others, are also the most complicated, and the most difficult to specify with any approach to completeness. Autobiography · p. 38 Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > I regard utility as the ultimate appeal on all ethical questions; but it must be utility in the largest sense, grounded on the permanent interests of man as a progressive being. On Liberty Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > [H]e regarded it with the feelings due not to a mere mental delusion, but to a great moral evil. He looked upon it as the greatest enemy of morality: first, by setting up factitious excellencies,—belief in creeds, devotional feelings, and ceremonies, not connected with the good of human kind,—and causing these to be accepted as substitutes for genuine virtues: but above all, by radically vitiating the standard of morals; making it consist in doing the will of a being, on whom it lavishes indeed all the phrases of adulation, but whom in sober truth it depicts as eminently hateful. Autobiography · p. 40 Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > So he was a little more callous than the rest of the world’s billions. But not much. Every voter had a bit of the organlegger in him. In voting the death penalty for so many crimes, the law makers had only bent to pressure from the voters. There was a spreading lack of respect for life, the evil side of transplant technology. The good side was a longer life for everyone. One condemned criminal could save a dozen deserving lives. Who could complain about that? [Larry Niven](https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven.md) · [Flatlander](https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven/flatlander.md) · p. 34 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven/flatlander/so-he-was.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md) > 'But we should kill him!' > > 'No. You've been listen to Brocando too often,' said Bane. > > Brocando bristled. 'You know what he is! Why not kill--' he began, but he was interrupted. > > 'Because it doesn't matter what he is. It matters what we are.' [Terry Pratchett](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett.md) · [The Carpet People](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/the-carpet-people.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/the-carpet-people/but-we-should.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [character](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/character.md) > It is a mistake to think that because a group has suffered extreme persecution that is a sign that they are virtuous and innocent. They might be, of course, but the persecution process is no proof of that. The persecution merely shows that the persecuted group is weak. Had they been strong, then, for all we know, they might have been the persecutors. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [I, Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov.md) · p. 22 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/it-is-a-mistake.md) Topics: [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > I've lived most of my life already and I suppose I can argue myself into believing that I have no great cause to love humanity. However, only a few people have hurt me, and if I hurt everyone in return that is unconscionable usury. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [The Gods Themselves](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-gods-themselves.md) · p. 250 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-gods-themselves/ive-lived-most.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation/never-let-your.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Junz found revulsion growing strong within him. A planet full of people meant nothing against the dictates of economic necessity! [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [The Currents of Space](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-currents-of-space.md) · p. 184 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-currents-of-space/junz-found-revulsion.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > The same man who could not find it in his conscience to curb his curiosity into the nuclear studies that might someday kill half of Earth would risk his life to save that of an unimportant fellow man. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Pebble in the Sky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/pebble-in-the-sky.md) · p. 6 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/pebble-in-the-sky/the-same-man.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > “Logically, developing children are carefully screened for physical and mental defects before being allowed to mature.” > > Baley interrupted. “You mean you kill them if they don’t—” > > “If they don’t measure up. Quite painlessly, I assure you. The notion shocks you, just as the Earthman’s uncontrolled breeding shocks us.” [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [The Caves of Steel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-caves-of-steel.md) · p. 91 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-caves-of-steel/logically-developing-children.md) Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [children](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children.md) > What we find incredible is the way that people - right up to the early 2000s! - calmly accepted behaviour we would consider atrocious. And believed in the most mindboggled... Nonsense, which surely any rational person would dismiss out of hand.'... > > 'Examples, please.' 'Well... every year in some countries thousands of little girls were hideously mutilated to preserve their virginity? Many of them died - but the authorities turned a blind eye.' 'I agree that was terrible - but what could my government do about it?' 'A great deal - if it wished. But that would have offended the people who supplied it with oil and bought its weapons, like the landmines that killed and maimed civilians by the thousand.' p.32 [Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [3001 The Final Odyssey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/3001-the-final-odyssey.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/3001-the-final-odyssey/what-we-find.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > The courtesans, as Vandeuvres used to say, avenged public morality by emptying his money bags. Nana Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [money](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money.md) > "Let us never fear robbers nor murderers. Those are dangers from without, petty dangers. Let us fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices are the real murderers. The great dangers lie within ourselves. What matters it what threatens our head or our purse! Let us think only of that which threatens our soul." [Victor Hugo](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo.md) · [Les Miserables](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables/let-us-never.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure." [H.L. Mencken](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken.md) · [Minority Report](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report/moral-certainty-is-always.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [doubt](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/doubt.md) > A man who has throttled a bad impulse has at least some consolation in his agonies, but a man who has throttled a good one is in a bad way indeed. [H.L. Mencken](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken.md) · [A Mencken Chrestomathy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/a-mencken-chrestomathy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/a-mencken-chrestomathy/a-man-who.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends. [H.L. Mencken](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken.md) · [A Mencken Chrestomathy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/a-mencken-chrestomathy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/a-mencken-chrestomathy/conscience-is-a-mother-in-law.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking. [H.L. Mencken](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken.md) · [A Mencken Chrestomathy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/a-mencken-chrestomathy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/a-mencken-chrestomathy/conscience-is-the.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Immorality is the morality of those who are having a better time. You will never convince the average farmer's mare that the late Maud S. was not dreadfully immoral. [H.L. Mencken](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken.md) · [A Mencken Chrestomathy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/a-mencken-chrestomathy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/a-mencken-chrestomathy/immorality-is-the.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Some people are worried about the difference between right and wrong. I'm worried about the difference between wrong and fun. Holidays in Hell Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Whatever we may do, excess will always keep its place in the heart of man, in the place where solitude is found. We all carry within us our places of exile, our crimes and our ravages. But our task is not to unleash them on the world; it is to fight them in ourselves and in others. [Albert Camus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus.md) · [The Rebel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel/whatever-we-may.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > "The real saint", Baudelaire pretends to think, "is he who flogs and kills people for their own good." His argument will be heard. A race of real saints is beginning to spread over the earth for the purposes of confirming these curious conclusions about rebellion. [Albert Camus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus.md) · [The Rebel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel/the-real-saint.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > One might think that a period which, in a space of fifty years, uproots, enslaves, or kills seventy million human beings should be condemned out of hand. But its culpability must still be understood... In more ingenuous times, when the tyrant razed cities for his own greater glory, when the slave chained to the conqueror's chariot was dragged through the rejoicing streets, when enemies were thrown to the wild beasts in front of the assembled people, the mind did not reel before such unabashed crimes, and the judgment remained unclouded. But slave camps under the flag of freedom, massacres justified by philanthropy or by a taste for the superhuman, in one sense cripple judgment. On the day when crime dons the apparel of innocence — through a curious transposition peculiar to our times — it is innocence that is called upon to justify itself. [Albert Camus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus.md) · [The Rebel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel/one-might-think.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [hypocrisy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy.md), [crime](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/crime.md) > "What on earth prompted you to take a hand in this?" > > "I don't know. My... my code of morals, perhaps." > > "Your code of morals. What code, if I may ask?" > > "Comprehension." [Albert Camus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus.md) · [The Plague](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-plague.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-plague/what-on-earth.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Can one be a saint without God?, that's the problem, in fact the only problem, I'm up against today. [Albert Camus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus.md) · [The Plague](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-plague.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-plague/can-one-be-a-saint.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > I am a humanist because I think humanity can, with constant moral guidance, create reasonably decent societies. I think that young people who want to understand the world can profit from the works of Plato and Socrates, the behaviour of the three Thomases, Aquinas, More and Jefferson — the austere analyses of Immanuel Kant and the political leadership of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. [James A. Michener](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener.md) · [The World Is My Home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/the-world-is-my-home.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/the-world-is-my-home/i-am-a-humanist.md) Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Whatever my own practice may be, I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized. Walden · p. 245 Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [animals](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals.md) > How shall he ever know well what he is and does as an officer of the government, or as a man, until he is obliged to consider whether he shall treat me, his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and well-disposed man, or as a maniac and disturber of the peace, and see if he can get over this obstruction to his neighborliness without a ruder and more impetuous thought or speech corresponding with his action? Civil Disobedience Topics: [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth--certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn. Civil Disobedience Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md) > All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote. They will then be the only slaves. Only his vote can hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote. Civil Disobedience Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answered that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. Civil Disobedience Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > When the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned his office, then the revolution is accomplished. But even suppose blood should flow. Is there not a sort of blood shed when the conscience is wounded? Through this wound a man's real manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now. Civil Disobedience Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md) > The mass of men serve the state […], not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be "clay," and "stop a hole to keep the wind away," but leave that office to his dust at least […]. Civil Disobedience Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one. Civil Disobedience Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing; who even postpone the question of freedom to the question of free-trade, and quietly read the prices-current along with the latest advices from Mexico, after dinner, and, it may be, fall asleep over them both. What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot to-day? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret. At most, they give only a cheap vote, and a feeble countenance and Godspeed, to the right, as it goes by them. There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man; but it is easier to deal with the real possessor of a thing than with the temporary guardian of it. Civil Disobedience Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md) > To speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it. After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? — in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. Civil Disobedience Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md) > A man has not everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong. Civil Disobedience Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md) > Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Civil Disobedience Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md) > But the rich man — not to make any invidious comparison — is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects, and obtains them for him; and it was certainly no great virtue to obtain it. It puts to rest many questions which he would otherwise be taxed to answer; while the only new question which it puts is the hard but superfluous one, how to spend it. Thus his moral ground is taken from under his feet. The opportunities of living are diminished in proportion as what are called the "means" are increased. The best thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor. Civil Disobedience Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [money](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money.md) > A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the State with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated by it as enemies. Civil Disobedience Topics: [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely, and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is that he is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing that you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated again. Action from principle — the perception and the performance of right — changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divides states and churches, it divides families; ay, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine. Civil Disobedience Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md) > It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support. Civil Disobedience Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md), [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md) > Well, then, says I, what's the use you learning to do right when it's troublesome to do right and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? I was stuck. I couldn't answer that. So I reckoned I wouldn't bother no more about it, but after this always do whichever come handiest at the time. [Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [Adventures of Huckleberry Finn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn/well-then-says.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > I do not wish any reward but to know I have done the right thing. [Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [Adventures of Huckleberry Finn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn/i-do-not.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better. [Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [Adventures of Huckleberry Finn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn/right-is-right.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself, "All right, then, I'll go to hell." [Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [Adventures of Huckleberry Finn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn/i-was-a-trembling.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [choices](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/choices.md) > There was no getting around the stubborn fact that taking sweetmeats was only "hooking," while taking bacon and hams and such valuables was plain simple stealing — and there was a command against that in the Bible. So they inwardly resolved that so long as they remained in the business, their piracies should not again be sullied with the crime of stealing. [Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [The Adventures of Tom Sawyer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer/there-was-no-getting.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Virtue never has been as respectable as money. [Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [The Innocents Abroad](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-innocents-abroad.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-innocents-abroad/virtue-never-has.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [money](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money.md) > The obliteration of the evil hath been practised by two means, some kind of redemption or expiation of that which is past, and an inception or account de novo for the time to come. But this part seemeth sacred and religious, and justly; for all good moral philosophy (as was said) is but a handmaid to religion. [Francis Bacon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon.md) · [The Advancement of Learning](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-advancement-of-learning.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-advancement-of-learning/the-obliteration-of-the.md) Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Again, it is possible to fail in many ways (for evil belongs to the class of the unlimited ... and good to that of the limited), while to succeed is possible only in one way (for which reason also one is easy and the other difficult—to miss the mark easy, to hit it difficult); for these reasons also, then, excess and defect are characteristic of vice, and the mean of virtue; For men are good in but one way, but bad in many. [Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Nicomachean Ethics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/again-it-is-possible.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > The truly good and wise man will bear all kinds of fortune in a seemly way, and will always act in the noblest manner that the circumstances allow. [Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Nicomachean Ethics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/the-truly-good.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [character](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/character.md) > It is well said, then, that it is by doing just acts that the just man is produced, and by doing temperate acts the temperate man; without doing these no one would have even a prospect of becoming good. But most people do not do these, but take refuge in theory and think they are being philosophers and will become good in this way, behaving somewhat like patients who listen attentively to their doctors, but do none of the things they are ordered to do. [Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Nicomachean Ethics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/it-is-well.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [character](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/character.md) > In cases of this sort, let us say adultery, rightness and wrongness do not depend on committing it with the right woman at the right time and in the right manner, but the mere fact of committing such action at all is to do wrong. [Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Nicomachean Ethics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/in-cases-of-this.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > The vices respectively fall short of or exceed what is right in both passions and actions, while virtue both finds and chooses that which is intermediate. [Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Nicomachean Ethics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/the-vices-respectively.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [character](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/character.md) > Life seems to be common even to plants, but we are seeking what is peculiar to man. Let us exclude, therefore, the life of nutrition and growth. Next there would be a life of perception, but it also seems to be common even to the horse, the ox, and every animal. There remains, then, an active life of the element that has a rational principle; of this, one part has such a principle in the sense of being obedient to one, the other in the sense of possessing one and exercising thought. And, as "life of the rational element" also has two meanings, we must state that life in the sense of activity is what we mean; for this seems to be the more proper sense of the term. Now if the function of man is an activity of soul which follows or implies a rational principle, and if we say "so-and-so" and "a good so-and-so" have a function which is the same in kind, e.g. a lyre, and a good lyre-player, and so without qualification in all cases, eminence in respect of goodness being added to the name of the function (for the function of a lyre-player is to play the lyre, and that of a good lyre-player is to do so well): if this is the case, and we state the function of man to be a certain kind of life, and this to be an activity or actions of the soul implying a rational principle, and the function of a good man to be the good and noble performance of these, and if any action is well performed when it is performed in accordance with the appropriate excellence: if this is the case, human good turns out to be activity of soul in accordance with virtue, and if there are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete. > > But we must add "in a complete life." For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy. [Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Nicomachean Ethics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics.md) · p. 382 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/life-seems-to-be-common.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [meaning of life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life.md) > I have to live for others and not for myself; that's middle-class morality. [George Bernard Shaw](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw.md) · [Pygmalion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/pygmalion.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/pygmalion/i-have-to-live.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > I don't believe in morality. I'm a disciple of Bernard Shaw. [George Bernard Shaw](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw.md) · [The Doctor's Dilemma](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/the-doctors-dilemma.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/the-doctors-dilemma/i-dont-believe.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > You cannot have power for good without having power for evil too. Even mother's milk nourishes murderers as well as heroes. [George Bernard Shaw](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw.md) · [Major Barbara](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/major-barbara.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/major-barbara/you-cannot-have.md) Topics: [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > It is quite useless to declare that all men are born free if you deny that they are born good. Guarantee a man's goodness and his liberty will take care of itself. To guarantee his freedom on condition that you approve of his moral character is formally to abolish all freedom whatsoever, as every man's liberty is at the mercy of a moral indictment which any fool can trump up against everyone who violates custom, whether as a prophet or as a rascal. [George Bernard Shaw](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw.md) · [Major Barbara](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/major-barbara.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/major-barbara/it-is-quite.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md) > It is not the sale of my soul that troubles me: I have sold it too often to care about that. I have sold it for a professorship. I have sold it for an income. ... What is all human conduct but the daily and hourly sale of our souls for trifles? [George Bernard Shaw](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw.md) · [Major Barbara](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/major-barbara.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/major-barbara/it-is-not.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > The confusion of marriage with morality has done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other single error. [George Bernard Shaw](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw.md) · [Man and Superman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/man-and-superman.md) · p. 121 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/man-and-superman/the-confusion-of-marriage.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [marriage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/marriage.md) > Economy is the art of making the most of life. The love of economy is the root of all virtue. [George Bernard Shaw](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw.md) · [Man and Superman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/man-and-superman.md) · p. 235 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/man-and-superman/economy-is-the.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > So wicked do destruction and secrecy appear to honest minds, that Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross, while engaged in the commission of their deed [hiding Dr Manette's shoe-making bench] and in the removal of its traces, almost felt, and almost looked, like accomplices in a horrible crime. [Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [A Tale of Two Cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/so-wicked-do-destruction.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > Like the mariner in the old story, the winds and streams had driven him within the influence of the Loadstone Rock, and it was drawing him to itself, and he must go. Everything that arose before his mind drifted him on, faster and faster, more and more steadily, to the terrible attraction. His latent uneasiness had been, that bad aims were being worked out in his own unhappy land by bad instruments, and that he who could not fail to know that he was better than they, was not there, trying to do something to stay bloodshed, and assert the claims of mercy and humanity. [Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [A Tale of Two Cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/like-the-mariner.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md) > Chateau and hut, stone face and dangling figure, the red stain on the stone floor, and the pure water in the village well — thousands of acres of land — a whole province of France — all France itself — lay under the night sky, concentrated into a faint hair-breadth line. So does a whole world, with all its greatnesses and littlenesses, lie in a twinkling star. And as mere human knowledge can split a ray of light and analyse the manner of its composition, so, sublimer intelligences may read in the feeble shining of this earth of ours, every thought and act, every vice and virtue, of every responsible creature on it. [Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [A Tale of Two Cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/chateau-and-hut.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md) > The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided man. [Martin Luther King, Jr.](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr.md) · [Strength to Love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love/the-means-by-which.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md) > Second, Communism is based on ethical relativism and accepts no stable moral absolutes. Right and wrong are relative to the most expedient methods for dealing with class war. Communism exploits the dreadful philosophy that the end justifies the means. It enunciates movingly the theory of a classless society, but alas! its methods for achieving this noble end are all too often ignoble. Lying, violence, murder, and torture are considered to be justifiable means to achieve the millennial end. Is this an unfair indictment? Listen to the words of Lenin, the real tactician of Communist theory: ‘We must be ready to employ trickery, deceit, lawbreaking, withholding and concealing truth.’ Modem history has known many tortuous nights and horror-filled days because his followers have taken this statement serious. [Martin Luther King, Jr.](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr.md) · [Strength to Love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love/second-communism-is-based.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md)