Ethics and Morality

That is just the way with some people. They get down on a thing when they don’t know nothing about it.

Prejudice is the reason of fools.

He flattered himself on being a man without any prejudices; and this pretension itself is a very great prejudice.

Prejudice is opinion without judgement.

We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own. The Igbo, always practical, put it concretely in their proverb Onye ji onye n’ani ji onwe ya : ‘He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.’

Our nation is waging a war on a radical network of terrorists—not on a religion, and not a civilization. As we wage this war to defend our principles, we must live up to those principles ourselves. And one of the deepest commitments of America is tolerance. No one should be treated unkindly because of the color of their skin or the content of their creed. No one should be unfairly judged by appearance or ethnic background, or religious faith.

It’s an universal law—intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.

What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice.

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.

Prejudice is the child of ignorance.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

What a man had rather were true he more readily believes.

If he were allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to himself and that most of what he has been told about them is lies. The sealed world in which he lives would be broken, and the fear, hatred, and self-righteousness on which his morale depends might evaporate. It is therefore realized on all sides that however often Persia, or Egypt, or Java, or Ceylon may change hands, the main frontiers must never be crossed by anything except bombs.

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

It is vain to find fault with those arts of deceiving, wherein men find pleasure to be deceived.

In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.

There is a great danger that [the Internet] becomes a place where untruths start to spread more than truths.

The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.

Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.

One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.

He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.

He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.

It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.