Morality is a private and costly luxury.

There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

Sin, also for those who don’t have faith, exists when one goes against one’s conscience. To listen to and obey it means, in fact, to decide in face of what is perceived as good or evil. And on this decision pivots the goodness or malice of our action.

So far as I am concerned, I could not be accused of having set eyes, or having wished to set eyes, upon Darius‘ wife: on the contrary, I have refused even to listen to those who spoke to me of her beauty.

I think you have a moral responsibility when you’ve been given far more than you need, to do wise things with it and give intelligently.

An Englishman thinks he is moral when he is only uncomfortable.

Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

Those who excel in virtue have the best right of all to rebel, but then they are of all men the least inclined to do so.

Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.

To go to the world below, having a soul which is like a vessel full of injustice, is the last and worst of all the evils.

The most dangerous criminal now is the entirely lawless modern philosopher. Compared to him, burglars and bigamists are essentially moral men.

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.

He who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.

He incurs a fearful amount of guilt who in the least promotes the aim of the Evil One by trampling upon a tender conscience in a child.

The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure.

He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it.

Abortion is clearly wrong.

Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.

The man of life upright has a guiltless heart, free from all dishonest deeds or thought of vanity.

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

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Yet his shadow still looms. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives; who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves?

If a person is successful, we imagine they are probably also ethical, conscientious and deserving of their good fortune. This obscures the fact that many people who get ahead have done so by doing less than moral actions, which they cleverly disguise from view.

The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.

The more people rationalize cheating, the more it becomes a culture of dishonesty. And that can become a vicious, downward cycle. Because suddenly, if everyone else is cheating, you feel a need to cheat, too.

I tell myself every day I love my Jacuzzi, I love my marble floors, I love my high ceilings.

When anyone has the power to destroy the whole human race in a matter of hours, it becomes a moral issue. The church must speak out.

In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.

Justice means minding one’s own business and not meddling with other men’s concerns.

The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.

I’ve been very lucky, and therefore I owe it to try and reduce the inequity in the world. And that’s kind of a religious belief. I mean, it’s at least a moral belief.

Let us be moral. Let us contemplate existence.

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.

All the commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and so on, are summed up in this single command: You must love your neighbor as yourself.

Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent.

A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first.

A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.

The only big things I’ve purchased are my dad’s heart valve and a Rolls-Royce for my parents, for their anniversary. And that was only because my dad had a Lady Gaga license plate on our old car and it was making me crazy because he was getting followed everywhere, so I bought him a new car.

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.

Abortion isn’t a lesser evil, it’s a crime. Taking one life to save another, that’s what the Mafia does. It’s a crime. It’s an absolute evil.

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.

It is better to die than to preserve this life by incurring disgrace. The loss of life causes but a moment’s grief, but disgrace brings grief every day of one’s life.

Saints need sinners.

After the first blush of sin comes its indifference.

You cannot make a sinner into a saint by killing him. He who does not live as a saint here will never live as a saint hereafter.

In Italy they take cheap cloth and make it look expensive, but I take expensive cloth and make it look cheap. They just don’t understand.

The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul.

Compassion is the basis of morality.

Violence is both unavoidable and unjustifiable.

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.

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

I would rather die than do something which I know to be a sin, or to be against God’s will.

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it; for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.

Ordinary morality is innate in my view.

Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good… Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

Success consecrates the most offensive crimes.

Here comes 40. I’m feeling my age and I’ve ordered the Ferrari. I’m going to get the whole mid-life crisis package.