Conservatism vests in and depends on the widespread, informed understanding of human nature, self-governance and the First Principle of Progress: free people interacting in free markets produce the greatest good for the greatest number always, but only, when tethered to virtue and morality.
Philosophers and theologians have argued for centuries over the morality of targeted assassinations - a technique that the Israelis use with some frequency - without ever reaching anything approaching consensus.
Morality's not practical. Morality's a gesture. A complicated gesture learnt from books.
Mathematics should be mixed not only with physics but with ethics.
Police have both extra constraints and extra permissions - on the one hand, they can't dodge involvement in social disorder as the rest of us can and they may be required to conduct themselves privately in a way that does not undermine their public authority; on the other hand, they have permission to engage in deceptions, invasions of privacy and uses of force that are forbidden to the rest of us. But this does not put them beyond common morality.
The true artist doesn't substitute immorality for morality. On the contrary, he always substitutes a finer morality for a grosser one.
There is nothing divine about morality, it is a purely human affair.
There is no general doctrine which is not capable of eating out our morality if unchecked by the deep-seated habit of direct fellow-feeling with individual fellow-men.
The population problem has no technical solution; it requires a fundamental extension in morality.
it is wiser to be conventionally immoral than unconventionally moral. It isn't the immorality they object to, but the originality.
Morality is good, and is accepted of God, as far as it goes; but the difficulty is, it does not go far enough.
Morality was probably the invention of unattractive men. Whom else does it benefit really
A man is not moral because he is obedient through fear or ignorance. Morality lives in the realm of perceived obligation.
A lover would find life less broken apart after a misguided love affair if they could feel that they had been sinful rather than foolish.
You're trying to be tricky. What's morality?" "It's the difference between what's right and what you can rationalize. " "Must be a human thing. " "Exactly.
Do not open your mouth to tell me that your mind has convinced you of your right to force my mind. Force and mind are opposites. Morality ends where a gun begins.
Knowing about the neurobiological and evolutionary basis for social behavior can soften the arrogance and self-righteousness that often attends discussions of morality. It may help us all to think a little more carefully and rationally.
The thought of building a life around minimal morality or minimal significance—a life defined by the question, “What is permissible?”—felt almost disgusting to me. I didn’t want a minimal life. I didn’t want to live on the outskirts of reality. I wanted to understand the main thing about life and pursue it.
We may not need God to tell us where the world came from, but we need God to be able to live moral lives and for there to be morality in the first place.
No individual anonymous participant can influence the prices and therefore you really can speculate in the market without paying attention to morality. That's one of the positive features of markets. That's why they function.
