Moral Philosophy Quotes

“As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us.

[Letter to William Short, 31 October 1819]”
― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“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

“The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest-Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure.”
― John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism

“I will call no being good who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow creatures; and if such a creature can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go .”
― John Stuart Mill, An examination of Sir William Hamilton's philosophy, and of the principal philosophical questions discussed in his writings

“The good which every man, who follows after virtue, desires for himself he will also desire for other men...”
― Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“There's right and there's wrong. Y'gotta do one or the other. Do the other and you may be walking around, but you're dead as a beaver hat.”
― John Wayne

“Science and Metaphysics show us part of what “is”. Logic and Epistemology help us interpret this part and understand how much of it we can really know. And finally, Ethics teaches us how to embrace this knowledge and how to cherry-pick only those things that will give us endurance and contentment in the long run, avoiding those that may keep our hearts buried in the ground; how to live well and decently and how to help the society function properly.”
― Giannis Delimitsos

“Ethical actions can often entail short-term pain, but will always result in long-term gains. By contrast, unethical actions frequently have short-term gains, which make them so attractive. But I guarantee that unethical actions will always result in some form of long-term pain and ultimate collapse, frequently in unexpected ways.”
― Kashonia Carnegie PhD

“You chased after money to pay your mortal debts as your moral debts grew." - Jesus from "The Destroyer of Worlds" by Steven Seril”
― Steven Seril, The Destroyer of Worlds: An Answer to Every Question

“[...] [H]urting others always hurts me too. Every violent act in the world begins with a violent desire in somebody's mind, which disturbs that person's own peace and happiness before it disturbs the peace and happiness of anyone else. Thus people seldom steal unless they first develop a lot of greed and envy in their minds. People don't usually murder unless they first generate anger and hatred. Emotions such as greed, envy, anger, and hatred are very unpleasant. You cannot experience joy and harmony when you are boiling with anger or envy. Hence long before you murder anyone, your anger has already killed your own peace of mind.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

“It is, indeed, very important for the moral philosopher to come up with new, illuminating theories about life and what is the best way to live it. But her toughest task is to live according to her teachings and to bring theory and practice as close as possible.”
― Giannis Delimitsos

“The moral standpoint must always take preference over the monetary standpoint.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Woman Over World: The Novel

“The decision, for instance, to oppose slavery does not depend upon the fact that all men are born free and equal, and that no man is born in chains. For even if all were born free, some men might perhaps try to put others in chains, and they may even believe that they ought to put them in chains. And conversely, even if men were born in chains, many of us might demand the removal of these chains.
[...]
All moral decisions pertain in this way to some fact or other, especially to some fact of social life, and all (alterable) facts of social life can give rise to many different decisions. Which shows that the decisions can never be derivable from these facts, or from a description of these facts.”
― Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies - Volume One: The Spell of Plato

“I do not ask who was the first ethical lawgiver. I only maintain that it is we, and we alone, who are responsible for adopting or rejecting some suggested moral laws; it is we who must distinguish between the true prophets and the false prophets. All kinds of norms have been claimed to be God-given. If you accept the ‘Christian’ ethics of equality and toleration and freedom of conscience only because of its claim to rest upon divine authority, then you build on a weak basis; for it has been only too often claimed that inequality is willed by God, and that we must not be tolerant with unbelievers. If, however, you accept the Christian ethics not because you are commanded to do so but because of your conviction that it is the right decision to take, then it is you who have decided.”
― Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies - Volume One: The Spell of Plato

“It is clear that spiritual naturalism can be used to defend any ‘positive’, i.e. existing, norm. For it can always be argued that these norms would not be in force if they did not express some traits of human nature. [...] In fact, this form of naturalism is so wide and so vague that it may be used to defend anything. There is nothing that has ever occurred to man which could not be claimed to be ‘natural’; for if it were not in his nature, how could it have occurred to him?

Looking back at this brief survey, we may perhaps discern two main tendencies which stand in the way of adopting a critical dualism. The first is a general tendency towards monism, that is to say, towards the reduction of norms to facts. The second lies deeper, and it possibly forms the background of the first. It is based upon our fear of admitting to ourselves that the responsibility for our ethical decisions is entirely ours and cannot be shifted to anybody else; neither to God, nor to nature, nor to society, nor to history. All these ethical theories attempt to find somebody, or perhaps some argument, to take the burden from us. But we cannot shirk this responsibility. Whatever authority we may accept, it is we who accept it. We only deceive ourselves if we do not realize this simple point.”
― Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies - Volume One: The Spell of Plato

“Was goodness still good if you hewed to it out of tactical necessity? Was there, Baru wondered, any difference between being good and pretending to be good for your own gain, if you took the same actions in the end? Was there any difference between telling the truth unconditionally, and deploying the truth in service of your agenda, if you told the same truth?”
― Seth Dickinson, The Monster Baru Cormorant

“You are what you are because of your past mistakes, they build and make you wiser and strong through experience, but repeating them makes you a fool !!!
by ;
Dr. Anthony Onyachonam Chukuma, aimls, mbbs, cpa USA, hhi Harvard USA.”
― Dr Anthony Onyachonam Chukuma, aimls, mbbs, cpa USA, hhi Harvard USA.

“At first, this ethic of love strikes us as rightly as beautiful. Yet, if we take it seriously, we will recognize that by its very goodness, it condemns us.”
― Neil Shenvi, Why Believe?: A Reasoned Approach to Christianity

“Svak je tvorac svoje sreće, ali bi nekad i to trebalo žrtvovati za sreću bližnjega.”
― Abdurezak Hivzi Bjelevac, Pod drugim suncem

“Health and sanity do not rise by erasing all moral lines. Key to psychological health is finding the right balance.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Esperanza Impossible: 100 Sonnets of Ethics, Engineering & Existence

“Whether you believe a word of the Bible or not, it's a beautifully written example of mythic storytelling. The moral ideals expressed in its pages are noble aspirations. Sadly, they are routinely ignored or (accidentally or deliberately) misinterpreted.”
― Stewart Stafford

“People say I have to be good. But what does it mean to be good? To follow the precepts of another man's thinking? To bind oneself to the morality of another man's religion?

Where others see morality, I see a means to power. Where others see ethics, I see a mark of the weak.”
― Makuochukwu Okigbo

“I do not want beings to suffer, I want all to live happy healthy lives while ending up with peaceful deaths.”
― Jordan G Kobos

“Ik moest erg aan de vrede wennen. Al dat geklets over goed en slecht, over zwart en over wit. De ervaring had me geleerd dat er mensen bestonden die zeer slecht waren, maar de ervaring had me ook geleerd dat het merendeel zich in het rijk der tussentinten ophield. Dat was een verademing.”
― Armando, De straat en het struikgewas

“Don't stop being a good person because of bad people, because you're not being good for the bad in the world but to uphold the good in it.”
― Isabella Poretsis

“The crucial distinction that these emerging adults are missing is the difference between the basis or reason for some moral truth and the effects of living according to that moral truth. Right moral living should normally have certain positive, patterned effects, at least over the long run. But that does not make those effects per se the reason why those things are morally right in the first place. If they are indeed morally right, they should remain so even if they sometimes fail to have those effects.”
― Christian Smith, Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood

“Another, more basic reason is that even being able to know or define in the first place what hurts or helps other people often itself requires reference to certain moral standards and understandings of what is good and bad.”
― Christian Smith, Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood

“Health and sanity do not rise by erasing all moral lines, Key to psychological health is finding the right balance.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Esperanza Impossible: 100 Sonnets of Ethics, Engineering & Existence

“Evil is a fiction. Results are what matter." ~Grist”
― Emily Brandish, Monsters & Mind Games

“When we began this thing, you were intent to save the world. Now you’re more concerned about getting your hands dirty. Well, fuck your sense of propriety. I hope the view is lovely from atop your high horse while you watch the world burn.” ~Grist”
― Emily Brandish, Monsters & Mind Games