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There can be no final truth in ethics any more than in physics, until the last man has had his experience and said his say. William James
Every man has his moral backside too, which he doesn’t expose unnecessarily but keeps covered as long as possible by the trousers of decorum. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Every truth has two sides; it is well to look at both, before we commit ourselves to either. Aesop
A man who permits his honor to be taken, permits his life to be taken. Pietro Aretino
How could sincerity be a condition of friendship? A taste for truth at any cost is a passion which spares nothing. Albert Camus
Rhetoric takes no real account of the art in literature and morality takes no account of the art in life. Joseph Wood Krutch
No man has a right perception of any truth, who has not been reacted on by it, so as to be ready to be its martyr. Emerson
Honor is like a steep island without a shore; one cannot return once one is outside. Nicolas Boileau
As with the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of truth is itself gratifying whereas the consummation often turns out to be elusive. Richard Hofstadter
Morality regulates the acts of man as a private individual; honor, his acts as a public man. Esteban Echeverria
Honor; how much we fight with weakness to preserve thee. John Ford
It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, too be examined by too strong a light. The torch of truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see. Samuel Johnson
Our error and our controversies, in the sphere of morality, arise sometimes from looking on men as though they could be altogether bad, or altogether good. Vauvenargues
To be mistaken is a misfortune to be pitied; but to know the truth and not to conform one’s actions to it is a crime which heaven and earth condemn. Giuseppe Mazzini
How can we be scrupulous in a life which from birth onwards is so determined to wring us dry of any serenity at all. Christopher Fry
Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant’s truce between virtue and vice. Thoreau
Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It’s the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn’t make any difference so long as it is honored. Tom Stoppard
Without civic morality communities perish; without personal morality their survival has no value. Bertrand Russell
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. Samuel Johnson
So little trouble do men take in the search for truth, so readily do they accept whatever comes first to hand. Thucydides
There are no moral phenomena at all, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena. Nietzsche
The only truths we can point to are the ever-changing truths of our own experience. Peter Weiss
To be individually righteous is the first of all duties, come what may to one’s self, to one’s country, to society, and to civilization itself. Joseph Wood Krutch
All sects differ, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from god. Voltaire
On the one hand, we may tell the truth, regardless of consequences, and on the other hand we may mellow it and sophisticate it to make it humane and tolerable. H. L. Mencken
It’s never what you say, but how you make it sound sincere. Marya Mannes
The whole speculation about morality is an effort to find a way of living which men who live it will instinctively feel is good. Walter Lippman
If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it, they are wrong. Robert Louis Stevenson
The life of an honest man must be a perpetual infidelity. Charles Peguy
If there is one thing worse than the modern weakening of major morals it is the modern strengthening of minor morals. G. K. Chesterton
The primary condition for being sincere is the same as for being humble; not to boast of it, and probably not even to be aware of it. Henri Peyre
The essence of morality is the subjugation of nature in obedience to social needs. John Morley
When reason and instinct are reconciled, there will be no higher appeal. Jean Philippe Rameau
As society is now constituted, a literal adherence to the moral precepts scattered throughout the gospels would mean sudden death. Alfred North Whitehead
We must never delude ourselves into thinking that physical power is a substitute for moral power, which is the true sign of national greatness. Adlai Stevenson
Morals are an acquirement like music, like a foreign language, like piety, poker, paralysis; no man is born with them. Mark Twain
Never has there been one possessed of complete sincerity who did not move others. Never has there been one who had not sincerity who was able to move others. Mencius
You cannot throw words like heroism and sacrifice and nobility and honor away without abandoning the qualities they express. Marya Mannes
Virtue is praised, but hated. People run away from it, for it is ice-cold and in this world you must keep your feet warm. Denis Diderot
Morality turns on whether the pleasure precedes or follows the pain. Samuel Butler
Who cannot open an honest mind, no friend will be of mine. Euripides
Morality’s not practical. Morality’s a gesture. A complicated gesture learned from books. Robert Bolt
Honor and shame from no condition rise. Act well your part, there all the honor lies. Alexander Pope
The success of any great moral enterprise does not depend upon numbers. William Lloyd Garrison
Morals are conforming to a local and mutable standard of right and having the quality of general expediency. Ambrose Bierce
It is an endless and frivolous pursuit to act by any other rule than the care of satisfying our own minds in what we do. Richard Steele
There are people who are virtuous only in a piece-meal way; virtue is a fabric from which they never make themselves a whole garment. Joseph Joubert
Morality is the thing upon which your friends smile, and immorality is the thing on which they frown. Elbert Hubbard
Honesty’s praised, then left to freeze. Juvenal
Our system of morality is a body of imperfect social generalizations expressed in terms of emotion. Oliver Wendell Holmes
The only immorality is to not do what one has to do when one has to do it. Jean Anouilh
If virtue cannot shine bright, but by the conflict of contrary appetites, shall we then say that she cannot subsist without the assistance of vice, and that it is from her that she derives her reputation and honor. Montaigne
Sometimes I feel something akin to rage at the corrupted morals of this age. Moliere
He who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his songbird in a cage. Kahlil Gibran
God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Emerson
Morality is either a social contract or you have to pay cash. Stanislaw Lec
They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it. Confucius
