It is one of the oldest maxims of moral prudence: Do not, by aspiring to what is impracticable, lose the opportunity of doing the good you can effect! – William Godwin
Literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor. – William O. Douglas
Indulgence in frivolous speech not only reveals one’s lack of moral character, but it deprives him of good qualities also. – Thiruvalluvar
All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting ‘the rich’ to pay ‘their fair share’ is part of a big charade. This is not about economics, it is about politics. – Thomas Sowell
It’s healthy for government to be a kind of moral catalyst, using the bully pulpit of high office. – William Weld
It is always incorrect to assume you can know what someone’s moral convictions are based on their philosophical theories. – Stanley Fish
We need to go back to the way it was 30 years ago, when everybody had Grandma and Grandpa, and we were willing to pass moral judgments about right and wrong. – Steven Tyler
If the myth of pure evil is that evil is committed with the intention of causing harm and an absence of moral considerations, then it applies to very few acts of so-called ‘pure evil’ because most evildoers believe what they are doing is forgivable or justifiable. – Steven Pinker
I think coercive taxation is theft, and government has a moral duty to keep it to a minimum. – William Weld
What can the Church do? If she stands by her moral teaching, then she will be seen as standing in judgement over a vast percentage of Europeans. – Timothy Radcliffe
I do not think it possible for anyone to get by in life without prejudice. However, the attempt to do so leads many people to suppose that, in order to decide any moral question, they have to find an indubitable first principle from which they can deduce an answer. – Theodore Dalrymple
His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy. – Woody Allen
I think we need to take responsibility for the things we put on this planet, and also take responsibility for the things we take off the planet. We need to have limiters on how far we allow ourselves to go – ethical, moral limiters. – Steven Spielberg
Virtue is something you have to get good at, like playing the trombone or tolerating bores at parties. Being a virtuous human being takes practice; and those who are brilliant at being human (what Christians call the saints) are the virtuosi of the moral sphere – the Pavarottis and Maradonas of virtue. – Terry Eagleton
The teacher who would be true to his mission and accomplish the most good, must give prominence to moral as well as intellectual instruction. – Sheldon Jackson
Undermine their pompous authority, reject their moral standards, make anarchy and disorder your trademarks. Cause as much chaos and disruption as possible but don’t let them take you ALIVE. – Sid Vicious
I figured if I write a modern thriller but spliced in the DNA of a classic western – the drifter who comes into town with secrets – I could do something interesting with both genres. Westerns are also an incarnation of the classic knight errant tale, the lone warrior with a moral code, and I love those types of stories. – Simon Toyne
Equality of rights means that some people cannot simply impose obligations on others, for the moral agency and rights of those others would then be violated. – Tom G. Palmer
In books or films, it is desirable to have a climactic battle scene, but the world does not operate in those gross dramatic terms. In Vietnam, there was a general aimlessness, not just in the physical sense, but beyond that in the moral and ethical sense. – Tim O’Brien
After so many cases of terror attacks related to Islamic militancy remaining unresolved in the last few years, the government has no moral authority to stay in power. – Sheikh Hasina
To be frank, I suspect that today there is little respect for Christianity as source of moral teaching about goodness. – Timothy Radcliffe
The mere holding of slaves, therefore, is a condition having per se nothing of moral character in it, any more than the being a parent, or employer, or ruler. – Samuel Morse
After the turbulence of death, moral principles and even religious proofs are called into question. – Salvatore Quasimodo
In many countries today, moral and ethical norms are being reconsidered; national traditions, differences in nation and culture are being erased. – Vladimir Putin