340 Best Morality Quotes

It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently. – Fyodor Dostoevsky

I am not contending for the murder; I am contending for my idea. – Rodion Raskolnikov

What if man is not really a beast, man in general, the whole of mankind? Then all the rest is prejudice, simply artificial terrors and there are no barriers and it’s all as it should be. – Rodion Raskolnikov

I'm a pacifist, if you want to know the truth. – Holden Caulfield

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it. – Atticus Finch

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. – Atticus Finch

Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy... but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. – Miss Maudie

The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience. – Atticus Finch

Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win. – Atticus Finch

Before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. – Atticus Finch

It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived. – Scout Finch

I wanted to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.

So it took an eight-year-old child to bring 'em to their senses.... That proves something - that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they're still human. – Atticus Finch

As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it—whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, that white man is trash. – Atticus Finch

It is much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about.

The very central point of her existence was the love of life, and she could not understand this love apart from the love of goodness.

Vengeance is mine; I will repay.

The role of a benefactor is a dangerous one and not a Christian one. There is a danger of pride, of self-satisfaction.

If I speak, I am condemned. If I stay silent, I am damned.

The wickedness of men is that they can become accustomed to crime.

He was no longer the man, but the conscience of the entire human race.

The peculiarity of prudery is to place the sentinel of virtue in the places most attacked.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself. – Lord Henry

You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit. – Lord Henry

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

The soul is a terrible reality. It can be bought, and sold, and bartered away. It can be poisoned, or made perfect.

One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner. – Lord Henry

You would sacrifice anybody, Harry, for the sake of an epigram. – Basil Hallward

Each of us has Heaven and Hell in him, Basil. – Dorian Gray

Conscience and cowardice are really the same things. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all. – Lord Henry

If God does not exist, everything is permitted. – Ivan Karamazov

Reason is a scoundrel, for it can always find reasons for anything. – Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov

The world says: 'You have needs — satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more.' This is the worldly doctrine of today. – The Elder Zosima

Which is better – to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill? – Piggy

Roger gathered a handful of stones and began to throw them. Yet there was a space round Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. – Narrator

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

The time is always right to do what is right.

The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.

We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.

There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children. – Nelson Mandela

It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong. – Abraham Lincoln

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion. – Abraham Lincoln

Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force. – Franklin D. Roosevelt

The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea. – Franklin D. Roosevelt

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. – Albus Dumbledore

If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals. – Sirius Black

We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are. – Sirius Black