“Human beings have capitalized on the silence of animals, just as certain human beings have historically imposed silence on certain other human beings by denying slaves the right to literacy, denying women the right to own property, and denying both the right to vote.”
“...Or should you mourn the rapist, which I guess Christians mourn the people who kill them too.”
“Like it or not, it s the society we live in. Even the standard of right and wrong has been subdivided, made sophisticated. Within good, there s fashionable good and unfashionable good, and ditto for bad. Within fashionable good, there s formal and then there s casual; there s hip, there s cool, there s trendy, there s snobbish. Mix n match.”
“our moral reasoning is plagued by two illusions. The first illusion can be called the wag-the-dog illusion: We believe that our own moral judgment (the dog) is driven by our own moral reasoning (the tail). The second illusion can be called the wag-theother-dog s-tail illusion: In a moral argument, we expect the successful rebuttal of an opponent s arguments to change the opponent s mind. Such a belief is like thinking that forcing a dog s tail to wag by moving it with your hand will make the dog happy.”
“We want character but without unyielding conviction; we want strong morality but without the emotional burden of guilt or shame; we want virtue but without particular moral justifications that invariably offend; we want good without having to name evil; we want decency without the authority to insist upon it; we want more community without any limitations to personal freedom. In short, we want what we cannot possibly have on the terms that we want it.”
“You can always tell the heart of man by what he do, and by what he don t do...”
“Existential depression has always annoyed me; it is one of the world s most pointless forms of suffering.”
“There s more to people than some defined label, said Arcie. There are more than straight good and evil, aye, even more than law or disorders or fence-sittin. There s prejudice, whimsey, affection, superstition, habit, upbringing, alliance, pride, society, morals, animosity, preference, values, religion, circumstance, humor, perversity, honor, vengeance, jealousy, frustration...hundreds o factors, from the past and in every present moment, as decides what some one person ll do in an individious situation.”
“He knew what retributions your devils are liable to bring for the way you treat your wife and women or behave while your father is on his deathbed, what you ought to think of your pleasure, of acting like a cockroach; he had the intelligence for the comparison. He had the intelligence to be sublime. But sublimity can t exist only as a special gift of the few, due to an accident of origin, like being born an albino. If it were, what interest would we have in it?”
“Our morality system has become a mechanical device for protecting us against ourselves; it is the handiwork of terror.”
“Two wrongs create an additional problem. A wrong plus A right creates a remorse. Two rights create a solution.”
“To be ethical is to endeavor to find one s proper place in the larger scheme of things rather than to seek to assert human superiority over the natural world.”
“Oh no!’ replies Monsieur Tuvache indignantly. ‘We’re not murderers, you know. You have to understand that’s prohibited. We supply what is needed but people do the deed themselves. It’s their affair. We are just here to offer a service by selling quality products,’ continues the shopkeeper, leading the customer towards the checkout.”
“There may be some truth (atheists) do not need to believe in a god to be good, but then if they do not believe in a god, who do they believe gives the Universal Law of following good and shunning evil? Obviously, mankind. But then that is a dangerous thing, for if a man does not believe in a god capable of giving perfect laws, he is in the position of declaring all laws come from man, and as man is imperfect, he can declare that as fallible men make imperfect laws, he can pick and choose what he wishes to follow, that which, in his own mind seems good. He does not believe in divine retribution, therefore he can also declare his own morality contrary to what the divine may decree simply because he believes there is no divine decree. He may follow his every whim and passion, declaring it to be good when it may be very evil, for he like all men is imperfect, so how can he tell what is verily good? The atheist is in danger of mistaking vice for good and consequently follow another slave master and tyrant, his own physical and mental weakness. Evil would be wittingly or unwittingly perpetrated, therefore, to recognise the existence of a perfect divine being that gives perfect Universal Laws is much better than not to believe in a god, for if there is a perfect god, they will not allow their laws to be broken with impunity as in the case with many corrupt judges on earth, but will punish accordingly in due time. Therefore, to be pious and reverent is the surest path to true freedom as a perfect god will give perfect laws to prevent all manner of slavery, tyranny and moral wantonness, even if we do not understand why they are good laws at times.”
“Nature has made a mistake in the choice of my sexuality and I must do a life-long penance for it, for the moral power to suffer the unavoidable with dignity is lost.”
“There is nothing as dangerous as an economist who only knows economics except the moral philosopher who knows no economics.”
“Sometimes there s other reason for helping, other than personal gain or benefit, added Sam softly. Friendship, companionship, trust and love are not confined to light alone...they are harder won, fewer seen...but no less real.”