Society and the World

You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know.

Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without expectations of rewards or punishments after I am dead.

I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without expectations of rewards or punishments after I am dead.

Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.

Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.

The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.

The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.

To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

So far, about morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.

In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.

Without freedom there can be no morality.

Without freedom there can be no morality.

The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.

The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.

Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.

If your morals make you dreary, depend on it, they are wrong.

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.