Friday, August 10, 2007

Quotes: Moral Responsibility. Moral Victory. Morality.

A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.

Moral Responsibility
McCarthy’s strength was not in him personally, but in the acquiescence of those who should have known better.
Moral Responsibility 119 The real strength of McCarthy was not his own force or brilliance; it was the acquiescence of those who should have known better. Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest.

Moral Victory
A moral victory recognizes the moral superiority of his opponent.
Moral victory 973 …a moral victory, the kind of victory which compels the enemy to recognize the moral superiority of his opponent and his own impotence. Tolstoi, War and Peace

Morality
The SS morality was victory over all scruples.
Morality 421 SS “morality” sought the heroic victory over the self as the victory over all moral and religious scruples. Bracher, The German Dictatorship

It is harder to resist mercy in holding down captured peoples than it is to be in battle.
Morality 422 Himmler to the leaders of the SS: “In many cases it is considerably easier to lead a company into battle than to command a company responsible for some area where it has to hold down a hostile population, probably one with a long history, to carry out executions, to deport people, to remove shrieking, weeping women…to do this unseen duty…to be always consistent, always uncompromising—that is in many cases far harder.” Bracher, The German Dictatorship.

Should people resist when resistance is futile?
Morality xi The problem of power: Has anyone any ‘right’ to resist the stronger when resistance is likely to be ineffective? Warner, Euripides.

Don’t do things because you are able, but because you ought.
Morality 235 Arthur: I don’t think things ought to be done because you are able to do them; I think they should be done because you ought to do them. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.

King Arthur: “Might for Right.”
Morality 353 King Arthur’s slogan: “Might for right.” T. H. White, The Once and Future King.

When people are determined to do right all the time, they will find themselves in a tangle that even an angel can’t get out of.
Morality 432 Lionel: Give me a moral man who insists on doing the right thing all the time, and I will show you a tangle which an angel couldn’t get out of. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.

People need to foresee the distant results of their actions.
Morality 8 If men could be taught to see clearly their real interests, to see afar the distant results of their deeds…. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Plato.

The individual must at times sacrifice individuality for the common good.
Morality 40 Morality: …life in society requires the concession of some part of the individual’s sovereignty to the common order. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Plato.

The only unqualified good: to do right regardless of profit or loss for ourselves.
Morality 276 Kant: the only unqualifiedly good in this world is…the will to follow the moral law, regardless of profit or loss for ourselves. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.

Never treat people as a means.
Morality 277 Kant: …treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of another, in every case as an end, never only as a means. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.

People will respect you more if you give them money rather than a lecture on morality.
Morality 272 Johnson on morality vs. money: Go into the street, and give one man a lecture on morality, and another a shilling, and see which will respect you most. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.

People worry about others cheating them; one day they will worry that they might cheat others.
Morality 1062 Every man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him…but a day comes when he begins to care that he do not cheat his neighbor. Emerson, The Conduct of Life: Worship.

If you do wrong, you will suffer wrong.
Morality 294 You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong. Emerson, Compensation.

Intention is important in deciding right or wrong.
Morality 671 But of course intention was everything in the question of right and wrong. George Eliot, Middlemarch.

In deciding what to do, choose that which has more good than evil.
Morality 141 Lincoln: The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject anything, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years

Conscience is an inescapable feeling that we are doing right or wrong.
Morality, conscience 276 Kant: Now the most astounding reality in all our experience is precisely our moral sense, our inescapable feeling, in the face of temptation, that this or that is wrong…the categorical imperative in us, the unconditional command of our conscience…. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.

We must avoid behavior that if all men engaged in it, social life would be impossible.
Morality, conscience 276 Kant: We know, not by reasoning, but by vivid and immediate feelings, that we must avoid behavior which, if adopted by all men, would render social life impossible. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.

Conscience legislates a priori that what we are doing is right or wrong.
Morality, conscience 276 Kant: An action is good not because it has good results, or because it is wise, but because it is done in obedience to this inner sense of duty, this moral law that does not come from our personal experience, but legislates imperiously and a priori for all our behavior, past, present, and future. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.

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