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.

The object of the superior man is truth.

Sin is geographical.

To cut short the question of the law of retaliation, we must note that even in its primitive form it can operate only between two individuals of whom one is absolutely innocent, and the other absolutely guilty. The victim, to be sure, is innocent. But can the society that is supposed to represent the victim lay claim to innocence?

Better than worshiping gods is obedience to the laws of righteousness.

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

The thing that alarms me is that there are so many clergymen who say that the so-called ‚new morality‘ is all right. They say we’re living in a new generation; let’s be relevant, let’s change God’s law. Let’s say that adultery is all right under certain circumstances; fornication’s all right under certain circumstances. If it’s ‚meaningful.‘

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.

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

There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not object to it.

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

As human beings we have the most extraordinary capacity for evil. We can perpetrate some of the most horrendous atrocities.

How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense, and love the offender, yet detest the offence?

The greatest tragedy in mankind’s entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.

Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.

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

Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.

What is moral is what you feel good after, and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.

The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount.

Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It’s to see my dividends coming in.

Charity creates a multitude of sins.

If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.

It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.

The bourgeois prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to the deathly inner consuming fire.

I’m not afraid to look bad on the screen.

Honor is the reward of virtue.

It’s in responsibility that most people find the meaning that sustains them through life. It’s not in happiness. It’s not in impulsive pleasure.

We moralize among ruins.

I’m interested in that drive, that rush to judgment, that is so prevalent in our society. We all know that pleasurable rush that comes from condemning, and in the short term it’s quite a satisfying thing to do, isn’t it?

I don’t believe in killing whatever the reason!

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.

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

Sadly, of course, there is real evil in the world. You watch the news, and you see all of the people suffering and so much cruelty.

I think God’s justice is making wrongs right.

We tell lies, yet it is easy to show that lying is immoral.

Modesty forbids what the law does not.

The only objects of practical reason are therefore those of good and evil. For by the former is meant an object necessarily desired according to a principle of reason; by the latter one necessarily shunned, also according to a principle of reason.

No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse.

No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expedience.

The ‚morality of compromise‘ sounds contradictory. Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat. Strong men don’t compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.

Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.

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

You may either win your peace or buy it: win it, by resistance to evil; buy it, by compromise with evil.

You’re not going to scare me into being somebody I don’t want to be.

Because of lack of moral principle, human life becomes worthless. Moral principle, truthfulness, is a key factor. If we lose that, then there is no future.

If what you have done is unjust, you have not succeeded.

You may be educated abroad, you may be a great scientist, politician, but you always have a sneaking fear that if you don’t go to temples or do the ordinary things that you have been told to do, something evil might happen, so you conform. What happens to the mind that conforms? Investigate it, please.

There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia.

He that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand a broader mark for sorrow; but then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too.

A novel is a work of poetry. In order to write it, one must have tranquility of spirit and of impression.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.

A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.

Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.

Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.

No notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye.

No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.

After the first blush of sin comes its indifference.

I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.

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

Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.