Reverence for life is the highest court of appeal.

Those who commit injustice bear the greatest burden.

It’s not that every single thing that happens on Facebook is gonna be good. This is humanity. People use tools for good and bad, but I think that we have a clear responsibility to make sure that the good is amplified and to do everything we can to mitigate the bad.

I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics.

I think most defense attorneys know, to some extent, their clients are guilty.

All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.

To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.

There is a blessed necessity by which the interest of men is always driving them to the right; and, again, making all crime mean and ugly.

When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.

Train up a child in the way that he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

As a former resident with strong personal and ministry ties to the North Star State, I pray that the good people of Minnesota will show their support for God’s definition of marriage, between a man and a woman.

Show me the person you honor, for I know better by that the kind of person you are. For you show me what your idea of humanity is.

If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us.

I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it.

Crime when it succeeds is called virtue.

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.

The formation of one’s character ought to be everyone’s chief aim.

Henry Kissinger should have the door shut in his face by every decent person and should be shamed, ostracized and excluded.

Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.

Free speech is not just another value. It’s the foundation of Western civilization.

Family home evening is more for the purpose of teaching values and gospel principles, displaying talents and enjoying different kinds of family fun and activities.

I worked in ad sales. I would call up local businesses and try to get them to buy ads in the paper. The whole time, I felt like I was just scamming people.

All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?

The truth is, hardly any of us have ethical energy enough for more than one really inflexible point of honor.

It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‚Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

Well, I thought the deal was, when you went to work for the government you weren’t supposed to make money!

Nothing shows a man’s character more than what he laughs at.

For I can raise no money by vile means.

Cruelty is, perhaps, the worst kid of sin. Intellectual cruelty is certainly the worst kind of cruelty.

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

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.

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

If someone lies, well, you had a choice to trust that person or not. I think the way my father raised me, well, he trusted everybody. And that worked for him.

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?

Forgiveness is not a feeling – it’s a decision we make because we want to do what’s right before God. It’s a quality decision that won’t be easy and it may take time to get through the process, depending on the severity of the offense.

You can be rich in spirit, kindness, love and all those things that you can’t put a dollar sign on.

Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.

Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.

The word ‚good‘ has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.

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

I have always reckoned the dignity of the republic of first importance and preferable to life.

In the last analysis, even the best man is evil: in the last analysis, even the best woman is bad.

To say that you can kill in the name of God is blasphemy.

Traditions are a common part of our lives. They can be good, and not all traditions are wrong, but sometimes they can take the joy out of life.

The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state.

I never saw a contradiction between the ideas that sustain me and the ideas of that symbol, of that extraordinary figure, Jesus Christ.

The Trump phenomenon is in large part a reaction of Middle America to attacks on its values by intellectual and academic communities. There are other reasons, but this is a significant one.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.

No amount of ability is of the slightest avail without honor.

Mortals are easily tempted to pinch the life out of their neighbour’s buzzing glory, and think that such killing is no murder.

The role of the intellectual cannot be to excuse the violence of one side and condemn that of the other.

My parents were the same in the pulpit as they were at home. I think that’s where a lot of preachers‘ kids get off base sometimes. Because they don’t see the same things at both places.

When the President does it, that means that it’s not illegal.

The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

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.

Is science of any value? I think a power to do something is of value. Whether the result is a good thing or a bad thing depends on how it is used, but the power is a value.