Ethics and Morality

The Koran does not permit Mohammedans to drink. Their natural instincts do not permit them to be moral. They say the Sultan has eight hundred wives. This almost amounts to bigamy.

No real gentleman will tell the naked truth in the presence of ladies.

The weakest of all weak things is a virtue that has not been tested in the fire.

The public is the only critic whose judgment is worth anything at all.

Everybody's private motto: It's better to be popular than right.

To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man's character one must judge it by the standards of his time, not ours.

A man with a hump-backed uncle mustn't make fun of another man's cross-eyed aunt

All religions issue bibles again Satan, and say the most injurious things against him, but we never hear his side.

The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot .

The Indian may seem poor to we rich Westerners but in matters of the spirit it is we who are the paupers and they who are millionaires.

The church is always trying to get other people to reform, it might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little, by way of example

It is a mistake that there is no bath that will cure people's manners, but drowning would help.

A conspiracy is nothing but a secret agreement of a number of men for the pursuance of policies which they dare not admit in public

When in doubt tell the truth .

I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.

People who love sausage and respect the law should never watch either being made.

Honesty is the best policy - when there is money in it.

The more things are forbidden, the more popular they become.

Adam was but human—this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent.

Civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.

Never refuse to do a kindness unless the act would work great injury to yourself, and never refuse to take a drink - under any circumstances.

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

Be good and you will be lonely.

It was a place of sin, loose women, whiskey and gambling. It was no place for a good Presbyterian, and I did not long remain one.