Ethics and Morality

You will never find an Englishman in the wrong. He does everything on principle. He

Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.

What is virtue but the Trade Unionism of the married?

An Englishman thinks he is moral when he is only uncomfortable.

The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.

Martyrdom … the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.

The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.

He [the Briton] is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.

We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.

Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;

As he was valiant, I honour him: but, as he was ambitious, I slew him.

A promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.

We shall never learn to feel and respect our real calling and destiny, unless we have taught ourselves to consider every thing as moonshine, compared with the education of the heart.

It’s no fish ye’re buying—it’s men’s lives.

O what a tangled web we weave,

I hate victims who respect their executioners.

Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty.

The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell.

A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not to be endured with patient resignation.

The men with the muck-rakes are often indispensable to the well-being of society; but only if they know when to stop raking the muck.

We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics.