The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness.

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

The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.

A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and extravagant.

There is poison in the fang of the serpent, in the mouth of the fly and in the sting of a scorpion; but the wicked man is saturated with it.

War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man.

It is perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and I think it’s perfectly possible to live a life peppered with ill-doing and believe in God.

To be ashamed of one’s immorality: that is a step on the staircase at whose end one is also ashamed of one’s morality.

Let me spell it out: with the psychotic boss, nothing you do is ever quite right. They set traps, asking you to do things, and no matter how hard you think of accomplishing it in their way, it is wrong and you are to blame. This tends to instill a lot of fear in you.

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.

Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.

Sometimes there are no good guys. There are no bad guys. It seems like everybody is in the middle.

The only thing I’m afraid of is bees. I don’t like bees. I’m allergic to them.

Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.

It’s human nature to blame someone else for your shortcomings or upsets.

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.

Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil.

On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

The time has come for all evangelists to practice full financial disclosure. The world is watching how we walk and how we talk. We must have the highest standards of morality, ethics and integrity if we are to continue to have influence.

I can’t explain 9/11, except the evil of man.

I’m afraid that people who know me as I usually am will discover I have another side, a better and finer side. I’m afraid they’ll mock me, think I’m ridiculous and sentimental and not take me seriously. I’m used to not being taken seriously, but only the ‚light-hearted‘ Anne is used to it and can put up with it; the ‚deeper‘ Anne is too weak.

Nothing is ever done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done.

It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.

Don’t lie about anything, ever. Lying leads to Hell.

Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

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

Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires.

Rigid, the skeleton of habit alone upholds the human frame.

The flesh, or human nature, is generally lazy and self-centered.

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

As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.

Friendships, in general, are suddenly contracted; and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved.

Boredom is… a vital problem for the moralist, since half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.

I am not a victim of emotional conflicts. I am human.

Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.

There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.

Sometimes we look at gay being a bigger sin than being proud or not telling the truth. I don’t think God categorizes sins.

Punishment is the last and the least effective instrument in the hands of the legislator for the prevention of crime.

Violence is both unavoidable and unjustifiable.

Man’s only true happiness is to live in hope of something to be won by him. Reverence something to be worshipped by him, and love something to be cherished by him, forever.

Fear clogs; faith liberates.

The mind of America is seized by a fatal dry rot – and it’s only a question of time before all that the mind controls will run amuck in a frenzy of stupid, impotent fear.

Fear is present when we forget that we are a part of God’s divine design. Learning to experience authentic love means abandoning ego’s insistence that you have much to fear and that you are in an unfriendly world. You can make the decision to be free from fear and doubt and return to the brilliant light of love that is always with you.

War is evil, but it is often the lesser evil.

It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth.

If human beings were shown what they’re really like, they’d either kill one another as vermin, or hang themselves.

The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.

The savage in man is never quite eradicated.

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

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.

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.

Things done well and with a care, exempt themselves from fear.

If you’re going to wake up early all the time, and you’re working hard, and you’re working out, sometimes you’re going to get tired. It’s OK. It’s acceptable – somewhat. We’re all human, unfortunately.

It’s better to be good than evil, but one achieves goodness at a terrific cost.

Let the fear of a danger be a spur to prevent it; he that fears not, gives advantage to the danger.

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.

What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.

We should meet abuse by forbearance. Human nature is so constituted that if we take absolutely no notice of anger or abuse, the person indulging in it will soon weary of it and stop.

At first, I was scared to show fear because you can never be sure how people will perceive you. But I dared myself to do that, to stand out. Now I’ll talk about being beaten up or robbed or making a stupid decision because of a girl or whatever.

I think that people just have this core desire to express who they are. And I think that’s always existed.

We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.