Ethics and Morality

If we make mistakes in our first compositions and do not know them, we may not amend them.

The mole has very small eyes and it always lives under ground; and it lives as long as it is in the dark but when it comes into the light it dies immediately, because it becomes known; and so it is with lies.

Not to punish evil is equivalent to authorizing it.

Fire destroys all sophistry, that is deceit; and maintains truth alone, that is gold.

It is ill to praise, and worse to blame, the thing which you do not understand.

Love, Fear, and Esteem, Write these on three stones.

Virtue is our true wealth and the true reward of its possessor; it cannot be lost, it never deserts us until life leaves us.

Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places.

Good culture is born of a good disposition; and since the cause is more to be praised than the effect, I will rather praise a good disposition without culture, 47 t h a n g o o d c u l t u r e w i t h o u t t h e disposition.

A day will come in which men will look upon an animal’s murder the same way they look today upon a man’s murder.

Many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitudes.

Whoever does not respect life, does not deserve it.

Who sows virtue reaps honor.

Envy wounds with false accusations, that is with detraction, a thing which scares virtue.

It is an acknowledged fact that we perceive errors in the work of others more readily than in our own.

Depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves.

He who walks straight rarely falls.

Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!

My body will not be a tomb for other creatures.

Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail.

I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.

He who wishes to be rich within a day, will be hanged within a year.