“Morality is not just any old topic in psychology but close to our conception of the meaning of life. Moral goodness is what gives each of us the sense that we are worthy human beings.”— Steven Pinker, bioethics.net
“A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination.”— Percy Bysshe Shelley, amazon.com
“At the present time it is widely accepted among lawyers that law is higher than morality—law is something which is shaped and developed, whereas morality is something inchoate and amorphous. This is not the case. The opposite is true: morality is higher than law! Law is our human attempt to embody i…”— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, goodreads.com
“I believe that theres is one story in the world, and only one… Humans are caught - in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too - in a net of good and evil… there is no other story.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.com
“I can't stand moral absolutism. You know, there's always that guy who wants to point out that Martin Luther King cheated on his wife-- as if he obviously couldn't have been a great person if he did something like that. Or someone will bring out an inspirational quote, and get you to agree, and then…”— Anonymous, facebook.com
“There seems to be a massive misunderstanding in the world right now about weakness and strength. We've somehow gotten to the point that many think compassion is a sign of weakness, and ruthlessness a sign of strength. It makes me a little bit sick. Compassion is the ultimate expression of strength.…”— Hank Green, facebook.com
“Finally, in a low whisper, he said, ‘I think I might be a terrible person.’ For a split second I believed him - I thought he was about to confess a crime, maybe a murder. Then I realized that we all think we might be terrible people. But we only reveal this before asking someone to love us. It is a…”— Miranda July, amazon.com
“Some may say that such a girl is not ready for a relationship with a man, especially a man in his late sixties. But to that I say: We don't know anything. We don't know how to cure a cold or what dogs are thinking. We do terrible things, we make wars, we kill people out of greed. So who are we to sa…”— Miranda July, amazon.com
“Identical moral choices can require far more personal courage in some instances than others and those who do the right thing under such circumstances are very brave indeed.”— Karl Malantes, amazon.com
“Having a personal philosophy is like having a pet marmoset, because it may be very attractive when you acquire it, but there may be situations when it will not come in handy at all.”— Lemony Snicket, amazon.com
“Stealing, of course, is a crime, and a very impolite thing to do. But like most impolite things, it is excusable under certain circumstances. Stealing is not excusable if, for instance, you are in a museum and you decide that a certain painting would look better in your house, and you simply grab th…”— Lemony Snicket, amazon.com
“The reality is we often become our kindest, most ethical selves only by seeing what it feels like to be a selfish jackass first.”— Cheryl Strayed, amazon.com
“I hated knowing what I wanted and knowing what was right and knowing they weren’t the same thing.”— Maggie Stiefvater, amazon.com
“I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices.”— Oscar Wilde, amazon.com