Blaise Pascal Quotes

There's a lot to be done; I just see a total moral decay in our society.

We've lost our sense of ethics; we live in a world of small-mindedness, of gratification without happiness and actions without meaning.

In youth, it is common to measure right and wrong by the opinion of the world, and in age, to act without any measure but interest, and to lose shame without substituting virtue.

When all moves equally (says Pascal), nothing seems to move as in a vessel under sail; and when all run by common consent into vice, none appear to do so. He that stops first, views as from a fixed point the horrible extravagance that transports the rest.

The moment you give up your principles, and your values, you are dead, your culture is dead, your civilization is dead. Period.

When virtue is lost, benevolence appears, when benevolence is lost right conduct appears, when right conduct is lost, expedience appears. Expediency is the mere shadow of right and truth; it is the beginning of disorder.

I tend to think that good and evil exist and that the quantity in each of us is unchangeable. The moral character of people is set, fixed until death.

In a world where everyone is behaving honestly, any dishonesty constitutes a big infraction. But, in a world where many people are behaving dishonestly, and the news is filled with stories of their infractions, even big infractions can feel small to the perpetrator.

Regardless of what society says, we can't go on much longer in the sea of immorality without judgment coming.

Don't violate your own code of values and ethics, but don't waste energy trying to make other people violate theirs.

Morality is the custom of one's country and the current feeling of one's peers.

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.

There's so few people in this town with a conscience.

The price tag for principles is sometimes much higher than what’s on the table in terms of dollars and cents.

A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.

What to one man is the virtue which he has sunk below the possibility of aspiring to, is to another the backsliding by which he forfeits his spiritual crown.

Moral principles have lost their distinctiveness. For modern man, absolute right and absolute wrong are a matter of what the majority is doing.

I testify that wickedness is rapidly expanding in every segment of our society. It is more highly organized, more cleverly disguised, and more powerfully promoted than ever before. Secret combinations lusting for power, gain, and glory are flourishing. A secret combination that seeks to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries is increasing its evil influence and control over America and the entire world.

If there is one thing worse than the modern weakening of major morals, it is the modern strengthening of minor morals.

All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established.

What they need is a little immorality in their lives. Then they wouldn't be so busy looking for it in other people's.

We need to challenge the dominant culture: by ethics, principles and values.

Rationality tied to moral decency is the most powerful joint instrument for good that our planet has ever known.

How far should one accept the rules of the society in which one lives? To put it another way: at what point does conformity become corruption? Only by answering such questions does the conscience truly define itself.

Everything is blurred on what's right and what's wrong ... Sin becomes fine. Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men. Don't be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers - they won't inherit the kingdom of God.