Quotes on Morality

Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it. — Albert Einstein

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. — Henry David Thoreau

Moderation in temper is always a virtue, but moderation in principle is always a vice. — Thomas Paine

Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil. — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

I have often thought that morality may perhaps consist solely in the courage of making a choice. — Leon Blum

True morality consists not in following the beaten track, but in finding out the true path for ourselves and fearlessly following it. — Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

There is … only one categorical imperative. Is is: Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that is should become a universal law. — Immanuel Kant

The meaning of good and bad, of better and worse, is simply helping or hurting. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pleasures and pains of his species must become his own. — Percy Bysshe Shelly

It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions. — Aristotle

In nothing do humans approach so nearly to the gods as doing good to others. — Cicero

The moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as that of feeling, seeing, or hearing. — Thomas Jefferson

Give me chastity and self-restraint, but do not give it yet. — Saint Augustine

Without doubt the greatest injury of all was done by basing morals on myth. For, sooner or later, myth is recognized for what it is, and disappears. Then morality loses the foundation on which it has been built. — Lord Herbert Louis Samuel

Everyone must act according to the dictates of his own reason. — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Samuel Miller, 1808

When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law. — Frederick Bastiat