Moral Hierarchy Quotes

Cleanliness is not next to godliness. It isn't even in the same neighborhood.

If we are allowed to do experiments on monkeys because we are superior to them in a certain way, then someone who is superior to me is allowed to do experiments on me.

Animals... are there merely as a means to an end. That end is man.

Is it really true that political self-interest is nobler somehow than economic self-interest?

A vegan who beats his wife is far further down the ethical ladder than a meat eater who's kind to his children.

He whose intellect overcomes his lust is higher than the angels; he whose lust overcomes his intelligence is less than an animal.

Man is, beyond dispute, the most excellent of created beings, and the vilest animal is a dog; but the sages agree that a grateful dog is better than an ungrateful man.

Though in the order of nature angels rank above men, yet, by scale of justice, good men are of greater value than bad angels.

America's state religion, is patriotism, a phenomenon which has convinced many of the citizenry that 'treason' is morally worse than murder or rape.

Allah, the Exalted, gave the angels intellect without desires, He gave the animals desires without intellect, and He gave both to the sons of Adam. So a man whose intellect prevails over his desires is better than the angels, whilst a man whose desire prevails over his intellect is worse than the animals.

God's words first... obey God's law first before considering the laws of man.

The higher type of man clings to virtue, the lower type of man clings to material comfort. The higher type of man cherishes justice, the lower type of man cherishes the hope of favors to be received.

As between the skulking and furtive poacher, who hunts for the sake of meat, and the honest gentleman shooter, who kills for the pleasure of sport, I find the former a higher type of humanity.

Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral.

All duties are matters of conscience, with this restriction that a superior obligation suspends the force of an inferior one.

The second commandment is "Thou shall not construct any graven images." Is this really the pinnacle of what we can achieve morally? The second most important moral principle for all the generations of humanity?

What Bill O'Reilly says means nothing. What Stephen Bennett says means nothing. What God says means everything.

Morality is: the mediocre are worth more than the exceptions ... I abhore Christianity with a deadly hatred.

Organize one's values in the order of their worth

If no set of moral ideas were truer or better than any other, there would be no sense in preferring civilised morality to savage morality.

The swirl of their buzzwords—“access,” “stigma,” “progressive,” “diversity,” “crisis,” etc.—shows a discernible pattern. What these innumerable buzzwords have in common is that they either (1) preempt issues rather than debate them, (2) set the anointed and the benighted on different moral and intellectual planes, or (3) evade the issue of personal responsibility.

The hierarchy of power is not the same as the hierarchy of value. A good human is higher than the animals on both scales; an evil human is high on the scale of power, but at the very bottom of the scale of values.

Acting is not the noblest profession in the world, but there are things lower than acting. Not many, mind you - but politicians give you something to look down on from time to time.

But of the seven deadly sins, wrath is the healthiest - next only to lust.

A wise man should constantly discharge the paramount duties, but not always the minor ones; for he who does not discharge the former, while he obeys the latter alone, becomes an outcast.