The moral high ground is wreathed in fog.
—Arthur Miller
Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.
—Franz Kafka
It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
—Alfred Adler
Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.
—Isaac Asimov
A certain kind of rich man afflicted with the symptoms of moral dandyism sooner or later comes to the conclusion that it isn't enough merely to make money. He feels obliged to hold views, to espouse causes and elect Presidents, to explain to a trembling world how and why the world went wrong. The spectacle is nearly always comic.
—Lewis H. Lapham
Character is what a man is in the dark.
—Dwight L. Moody
I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals. I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants.
—A. Whitney Brown
That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.
—William J. H. Boetcker
There is not any memory with less satisfaction than the memory of some temptation we resisted.
—James Branch Cabell
When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.
—Abraham Lincoln
It is impossible to repent of love. The sin of love does not exist.
—Muriel Spark
When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are usually right.
—Eugene V. Debs
It is one thing to decry the rat race.… That is the good and honorable work of moralists. It is quite another thing to quit the rat race, to drop out, to refuse to run any further—that is the work of the individualist. It is offensive because it is impolite; it makes the rebuke personal; the individualist calls not his or her behavior into question, but mine.
—Paul Gruchow
The needle of our conscience is as good a compass as any.
—Ruth Wolff
Is it really so difficult to tell a good action from a bad one? I think one usually knows right away or a moment afterward, in a horrid flash of regret.
—Mary McCarthy