Life is about conduct and how we conduct ourselves. But two wrongs never make a right.

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

Of course, when I say that human nature is gentleness, it is not 100 percent so. Every human being has that nature, but there are many people acting against their nature, being false.

Good is positive. Evil is merely privative, not absolute: it is like cold, which is the privation of heat. All evil is so much death or nonentity. Benevolence is absolute and real. So much benevolence as a man hath, so much life hath he.

I have to live for others and not for myself: that’s middle-class morality.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that ‚Oryx and Crake‘ is anti-science. Science is a way of knowing, and a tool. Like all ways of knowing and tools, it can be turned to bad uses. And it can be bought and sold, and it often is. But it is not in itself bad. Like electricity, it’s neutral.

Should surveillance be usable for petty crimes like jaywalking or minor drug possession? Or is there a higher threshold for certain information? Those aren’t easy questions.

You must reward the kind of behavior that you want.

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

Injustice is censured because the censures are afraid of suffering, and not from any fear which they have of doing injustice.

Yes, there is a terrible moral in ‚Dorian Gray‘ – a moral which the prurient will not be able to find in it, but it will be revealed to all whose minds are healthy. Is this an artistic error? I fear it is. It is the only error in the book.

Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.

If you are a parent, you have probably already realized that your children are always watching what you do. And just as children watch their parents and emulate their behavior, so do employees who are watching their bosses.

‚Suffering should not make us bitter people,‘ my mother once said, ‚it should make us better comforters.‘ Young people need to hear this from those who have walked before them, because someday they’ll be walking those same steps, but there may not be anyone following behind.

Sooner or later we’re all someone’s dog.

No cause justifies the deaths of innocent people.

We have got to change our ethics and our financial system and our whole way of understanding the world. It has to be a world in which people live rather than die; a sustainable world. It could be great.

What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.

The big question about how people behave is whether they’ve got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard.

I’m just going to say it: I’m pro-guilt. Guilt is good. Guilt helps us stay on track because it’s about our behavior. It occurs when we compare something we’ve done – or failed to do – with our personal values.

Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.

The strength of a man’s virtue should not be measured by his special exertions, but by his habitual acts.

The infinite faith I have in people’s ability to understand anything that makes sense has always been justified, finally, by their behavior.

A child wants things to be a certain way. When you get to be an adult, you just understand that some people are good, some are not, and you can’t be naive.

Let’s pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere.

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes.

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.

I do not pilfer victory.

And in real life endings aren’t always neat, whether they’re happy endings, or whether they’re sad endings.

Of course, animals have to be killed for food or to prevent their doing injury to others or to property. But such killing is too often carried out without regard to the pain inflicted.

What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope?

If the Great Way perishes there will morality and duty. When cleverness and knowledge arise great lies will flourish. When relatives fall out with one another there will be filial duty and love. When states are in confusion there will be faithful servants.

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.

I’m not saying that love always takes you to heaven. Your life can become a nightmare. But that said, it is worth taking the risk.

Charity creates a multitude of sins.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

I don’t use Twitter for bad.

Please think of me like an endangered species and just observe me quietly from far away. If you try to talk to me or touch me casually, I may get intimidated and bite you. So please be careful.

And whether you’re an honest man, or whether you’re a thief, depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief.

One of the great questions of philosophy is, do we innately have morality, or do we get it from celestial dictation? A study of the Ten Commandments is a very good way of getting into and resolving that issue.

In a certain sense the Good is comfortless.

The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority have always done just the opposite.

A leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.

All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.

Wrinkles will only go where the smiles have been.

When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity.

I don’t see the point of doing an interview unless you’re going to share the things you learn in life and the mistakes you make. So to admit that I’m extremely human and have done some dark things I don’t think makes me unusual or unusually dark. I think it actually is the right thing to do, and I’d like to think it’s the nice thing to do.

Morality is contraband in war.

Don’t create more enemies than you take out by some immoral act.

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

When one has the feeling of dislike for evil, when one feels tranquil, one finds pleasure in listening to good teachings; when one has these feelings and appreciates them, one is free of fear.

Justice consists in doing no injury to men; decency in giving them no offense.

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.

Man seems to be the only animal whose food soils him, making necessary much washing and shield-like bibs and napkins. Moles living in the earth and eating slimy worms are yet as clean as seals or fishes, whose lives are one perpetual wash.

There are some loony people in this world!

So much of what we do every single day is the result of habits that we have formed over time.

I think big business is a terrible thing for the spirit of the country, as our spirit is the best thing about us.

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all – the apathy of human beings.