People are never more sincere than when they assume their own moral superiority.
Self-righteousness in retrospect is easy--also cheap.
The point of nonviolence is to build a floor, a strong new floor, beneath which we can no longer sink. A platform which stands a few feet above napalm, torture, exploitation, poison gas, A and H bombs, the works. Give man a decent place to stand.
Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.
I am too pure for you or anyone.
The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong-doer.
It's fine to criticize somebody else's crimes and misdeeds, but you don't talk about your own. The only exception is a country that is defeated. And even that is rather nuanced.
Autocratic power requires the degradation of moral authority - not the capture of moral high ground.
The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.
And while I might not always agree with the viewpoint I have to portray, because I play a district attorney, as an actress I can always tell myself that my character is trying to take the moral high ground.
The opponent strikes you on your cheek, and you strike him on the heart by your amazing spiritual audacity in turning the other cheek. You wrest the offensive from him by refusing to take his weapons, by keeping your own, and by striking him in his conscience from a higher level. He hits you physically, and you hit him spiritually.
In the Trump era, the Left has smartly and justifiably seized a moral high ground that the Right has abandoned by its embrace of the president.
Never descend to the ways of those above you.
Few politicians are good at taking the high ground and throwing themselves off it.
The moral high ground in taking the first hit before attacking has been made obsolete by weapons of mass destruction….You cannot wait for a catastrophic event.
I was much more afraid in Montgomery when I had a gun in my house. When I decided that I couldn’t keep a gun, I came face-to-face with the question of death and I dealt with it. From that point on, I no longer needed a gun nor have I been afraid. Had we become distracted by the question of my safety we would have lost the moral offensive and sunk to the level of our oppressors.
most of us have to be self-righteous before we can be righteous.
Guilt is petty; I am above guilt.
Worthless are those who injure others vengefully, while those who stoically endure are like stored gold. The gratification of the vengeful lasts only for a day, but the glory of the forbearing lasts until the end of time. Though unjustly aggrieved, it is best to suffer the suffering and refrain from unrighteous retaliation.
If we pick a fight, then we're just as bad as them. Combat should be used just to help people who can't defend themselves, period." "Well, if I don't fight back and they pound on me, then I'm one of the people I should be defending.
I don’t believe in eye-for-an-eye. The most incredible, sustainable, beautiful movements have been non-violent movements of civil disobedience.
As a teenager, I put a lot of pressure on myself, and a lot of that, for me, was about finding a moral high ground. As I've grown up, I've decided to abandon that because it made me judgmental and also stressed me out.
'The Truth' is not meant to preach or point any fingers. It's meant to show that perhaps we should all avoid taking the moral high ground unless we have thought about things a bit more.
That's how hatred is created: two different groups, each insisting they're on the moral high ground
If I had to fault President [Barack] Obama, I would say that sometimes governs like a visitor from a morally superior civilization.
