It is a most fearful fact to think of, that in every heart there is some secret spring that would be weak at the touch of temptation, and that is liable to be assailed. Fearful, and yet salutary to think of; for the thought may serve to keep our moral nature braced. It warns us that we can never stand at ease, or lie down in this field of life, without sentinels of watchfulness and campfires of prayer.
All political revolutions, not affected by foreign conquest, originate in moral revolutions. The subversion of established institutions is merely one consequence of the previous subversion of established opinions.
Unbounded morality ultimately becomes counterproductive even in terms of the same moral principles being sought. The law of diminishing returns applies to morality.
Moral certainty is never more than probability.
I apply the Abraham Lincoln test for moral casuistry: 'If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. ' Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.
Reason is not the sole basis of moral virtue in man. His social impulses are more deeply rooted than his rational life.
The church is not a political power; it's not a party, but it's a moral power.
First the grub, then the morals.
Let's just call things what they are. When a man's love of finery clouds his moral judgment, that is vanity. When he lets a demanding palate make his moral choices, that is gluttony. When he ascribes the divine will to his own whims, that is pride. And when he gets angry at being reminded of animal suffering that his own daily choices might help avoid, that is moral cowardice.
I needed to address that I've had some profound moral shifts in my own life.
A too constant preoccupation with money may seem to indicate the lack of a proper sense of moral values, but [let] those who have always had money. . . be without it for a while, and they will soon discover how quickly it becomes their chief concern.
The moral faculties are generally and justly esteemed as of higher value than the intellectual powers.
My principal battle with the North Vietnamese was a moral one, and prayer was my prime source of strength.
To do evil that good may come of it is for bunglers in politics as well as morals.
That Newt Gingrich or any mainstream Republican has the nerve to look down from what they perceive as their moral mountaintop at anyone is laughable.
The only moral lesson which is suited for a child--the most important lesson for every time of life--is this: 'Never hurt anybody.
The moral backbone of literature is about that whole question of memory. To my mind it seems clear that those who have no memory have the much greater chance to lead happy lives.
You cannot talk about evil without assuming a moral framework.
By renouncing the Bible, philosophers swing from their moorings upon all moral subjects. . It is the only correct map of the human heart that ever has been published.
I think she must have been very strictly brought up, she's so desperately anxious to do the wrong thing correctly.