Ogden Nash Quotes

Sin ought to be something exquisite, my dear boy.

...virtue is not merely a state in conformity with the right principle, but one that implies the right principle; and the right principle in moral conduct is prudence.

Morality, taken as apart from religion, is but another name for decency of sin.

If vices were profitable, the virtuous man would be the sinner.

Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics.

An action is the perfection and publication of thought. A right action seems to fill the eye, and to be related to all nature.

That which is selfish is immoral, and that which is unselfish is moral.

...guilt leads to righteous action, but rarely is it the right action.

I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.

One’s concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely with one’s personal interest in the issue.

You can't be right by doing wrong; you can't be wrong by doing right.

The content of scientific theory itself offers no moral foundation for the personal conduct of life.

One becomes moral as soon as one is unhappy.

Vice and virtue chiefly imply the relation of our actions to men in this world; sin and holiness rather imply their relation to God and the other world.

Do people get moral when they don't get ahead?

A good man with a good conscience doesn't walk so fast.

Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality.

To those whose God is honor; only disgrace is a sin.

The idea of right and wrong, being righteous, acknowledging when you make a mistake, repentance - all these important things I got from my Catholic background.

The omission of good is no less reprehensible than the commission of evil.

Seeking the good is not primarily about rules and commandments.

The better day, the worse deed.

We may not commit a lesser Sin under pretence to avoid a greater, but we may, nay we ought to endure the greatest Pain and Grief rather than commit the least Sin.

We may draw good out of evil; we must not do evil, that good may come.