It is only by dispelling the clouds and phantoms of religion that we shall discover truth, reason and morality.
Only sometimes when we pick and choose among the rules we discover later that we have set aside something precious in the process.
Official morality has always been oppressive and negative: it has said "thou shalt not," and has not troubled to investigate the effect of activities not forbidden by the code.
In the fight between biology and morality, biology has commonly won in the end.
Morality rests upon a sense of obligation; and obligation has no meaning except as implying a Divine command, without which it would cease to be.
There is no such thing as morality or immorality in thought. There is immoral emotion.
I think that as human beings we tend to compartmentalize, and we have a selective morality based on the situation we're in.
I claim to be a conscientiously immoral writer.
Dostoevsky preaches the morality of the pariah, the morality of the slave.
There can be no truly moral choice unless that choice is made in freedom; similarly, there can be no really firmly grounded and consistent defense of freedom unless that defense is rooted in moral principle. In concentrating on the ends of choice, the conservative, by neglecting the conditions of choice, loses that very morality of conduct with which he is so concerned. And the libertarian, by concentrating only on the means, or conditions, of choice and ignoring the ends, throws away an essential moral defense of his own position.
Compassion is the basis of morality.
No man loses ever on a lower level by magnanimity on a higher.
What can laws do without morals?
I think basic disease care access and basic access to health care is a human right. If we need a constitutional amendment to put it in the Bill of Rights, then that's what we ought to do. Nobody with a conscience would leave the victim of a shark attack to bleed while we figure out whether or not they could pay for care. That tells us that at some level, health care access is a basic human right. Our system should be aligned so that our policies match our morality. Then within that system where everybody has access, we need to incentivize prevention, both for the patient and the provider.
Modern societies march towards morality in proportion as they leave religion behind.
The type of figleaf which each culture employs to cover its social taboos offers a twofold description of its morality. It reveals that certain unacknowledged behavior exists and it suggests the form that such behavior takes.
History is a tragegy, not a morality tale.
It's a morality that keeps humans human.
The person who still blushes is not yet a degenerate.
If we do not help a man in trouble, it is as if we caused the trouble.