Ethics and Morality

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.

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

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

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.

Memory says: Want to do right? Don’t count on me.

Fay ce que vouldras.

A cynical, mercenary, demagogic, corrupt press will produce in time a people as base as itself.

Party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.

A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser to-day than he was yesterday.