"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something."
— Henry David Thoreau

"Does truth have a moral?"
— Rick Riordan (The Sea of Monsters)

"The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but "Can they suffer?""
— Jeremy Bentham

"Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light."
— Madeleine L'Engle (A Ring of Endless Light)

"Life, it turns out, goes on. There is no cosmic rule that grants you immunity from the details just because you have come face-to-face with a catastrophe. The garbage can still overflow, the bills arrive in the mail, telemarketers, interrupt dinner."
— Jodi Picoult (Perfect Match:A Novel)

"A man of great common sense and good taste - meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage. "
— George Bernard Shaw

"Envy, after all, comes from wanting something that isn't yours. But grief comes from losing something you've already had."
— Jodi Picoult (Perfect Match:A Novel)

"The instinct to survive is human nature itself, and every aspect of our personalities derives from it. Anything that conflicts with the survival instinct acts sooner or later to eliminate the individual and thereby fails to show up in future generations. . . . A scientifically verifiable theory of morals must be rooted in the individual's instinct to survive--and nowhere else!--and must correctly describe the hierarchy of survival, note the motivations at each level, and resolve all conflicts.
We have such a theory now; we can solve any moral problem, on any level. Self-interest, love of family, duty to country, responsibility toward the human race . . . .
The basis of all morality is duty, a concept with the same relation to group that self-interest has to individual."
— Robert A. Heinlein (Starship Troopers)

"سُئل ابن المقفّع "من أدّبك"؟ فقال: "نفسي. إذا رأيت من غيري حسنا آتيه، وإن رأيت قبيحا أبَيْته". "
— عبدالله بن المقفع

"'If we can use an H-bomb--and as you said it's no checker game; it's real, it's war and nobody is fooling around--isn't it sort of ridiculous to go crawling around in the weeds, throwing knives and maybe getting yourself killed . . . and even losing the war . . . when you've got a real weapon you can use to win? What's the point in a whole lot of men risking their lives with obsolete weapons when one professor type can do so much more just by pushing a button?'
Zim didn't answer at once, which wasn't like him at all. Then he said softly, 'Are you happy in the Infantry, Hendrick? You can resign, you know.'
Hendrick muttered something; Zim said, 'Speak up!'
'I'm not itching to resign, sir. I'm going to sweat out my term.'
'I see. Well, the question you asked is one that a sergeant isn't really qualified to answer . . . and one that you shouldn't ask me. You're supposed to know the answer before you join up. Or you should. Did your school have a course in History and Moral Philosophy?'
'What? Sure--yes, sir.'
'Then you've heard the answer. But I'll give you my own--unofficial--views on it. If you wanted to teach a baby a lesson, would you cuts its head off?'
'Why . . . no, sir!'
'Of course not. You'd paddle it. There can be circumstances when it's just as foolish to hit an enemy with an H-Bomb as it would be to spank a baby with an ax. War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose. The purpose of war is to support your government's decisions by force. The purpose is never to kill the enemy just to be killing him . . . but to make him do what you want him to do. Not killing . . . but controlled and purposeful violence. But it's not your business or mine to decide the purpose of the control. It's never a soldier's business to decide when or where or how--or why--he fights; that belongs to the statesmen and the generals. The statesmen decide why and how much; the generals take it from there and tell us where and when and how. We supply the violence; other people--"older and wiser heads," as they say--supply the control. Which is as it should be. That's the best answer I can give you. If it doesn't satisfy you, I'll get you a chit to go talk to the regimental commander. If he can't convince you--then go home and be a civilian! Because in that case you will certainly never make a soldier.'"
— Robert A. Heinlein (Starship Troopers)

""Having to face him at a competency hearing is like getting to hell and finding out that the only food available is raw liver-insult added to injury.""
— Jodi Picoult (Perfect Match:A Novel)

"http://a4.vox.com/6a00e398a0ed8f000300fa... What if the one I choose to discount is one who has been truly hurt?"
— Jodi Picoult (Perfect Match: A Novel)

"Observe how many people evade, rationalize and drive their minds into a state of blind stupor, in dread of discovering that those they deal with- their "loved ones" or friends or business associates or political rulers- are not merely mistaken, but evil. Observe that this dread leads them to sanction, to help and to spread the very evil whose existence they fear to acknowledge."
— Ayn Rand (The Virtue of Selfishness)

"The all but unanimous judgment seems to be that we, the democracies, are just as responsible for the rise of the dictators as the dictatorships themselves, and perhaps more so."
— Harry Emerson Fosdick

"It is true that as World War II recedes into the mists of time, almost all big-hearted progressives or liberals (or whatever self-congratulatory term they apply to themselves) denounce Nazism and fascism with the utmost ardor. Yet when these odious movements were on the rise, many among the British elite cautioned prudence in dealing with them; and some actually admired them, including members of the royal family and, of course, clerics in the Anglican Church."
— R. Emmett Tyrrell

"But today our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change. The large house in which we live demands that we transform this world-wide neighborhood into a world – wide brotherhood. Together we must learn to live as brothers or together we will be forced to perish as fools.

We must work passionately and indefatigably to bridge the gulf between our scientific progress and our moral progress. One of the great problems of mankind is that we suffer from a poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually.



"
— Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"We own up to minor failings, but only so as to convince others that we have no major ones."
— François duc de La Rochefoucauld

"The noblest study of mankind is Man, says Man."
— James Thurber (Further Fables for Our Time)

"Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same. "
— George Bernard Shaw

"Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity."
— John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

"But today our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change. The large house in which we live demands that we transform this world-wide neighborhood into a world – wide brotherhood. Together we must learn to live as brothers or together we will be forced to perish as fools.

We must work passionately and indefatigably to bridge the gulf between our scientific progress and our moral progress. One of the great problems of mankind is that we suffer from a poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually.



"
— Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.