moral independence Quotes

Every high degree of power always involves a corresponding degree of freedom from good and evil.

I heard Cher say, 'I answer to two people: Myself and God.' I say, 'I only answer to me. I'm not sure I appreciate God's opinion.'

We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.

Property is desirable as the ground work of moral independence, as a means of improving the faculties, and of doing good to others, and as the agent in all that distinguishes the civilized man from the savage.

But the egoist has no ideals, for the knowledge that his ideals are only his ideals, frees him from their domination. He acts for his own interest, not for the interest of ideals.

Morality is more than possible without God, it is entirely independent of him.

I'm proud to be an atheist - it helps me stand for so much more and fall for so much less.

Morality has nothing to do with such a man as I am.

The nobility of a human being is strictly independent of that of his convictions.

I for one don't need a supreme "sacred" arbiter in order to be a moral being.

Punishment renders autonomy of conscience impossible.

Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish.

How much evil throughout history could have been avoided had people exercised their moral acuity with convictional courage and said to the powers that be, 'No, I will not. This is wrong, and I don't care if you fire me, shoot me, pass me over for promotion, or call my mother, I will not participate in this unsavory activity.' Wouldn't world history be rewritten if just a few people had actually acted like individual free agents rather than mindless lemmings?

Without moral and intellectual independence, there is no anchor for national independence.

Virtue could see to do what Virtue would by her own radiant light, though sun and moon where in the flat sea sunk.

I don't feel in any way obligated to remain current with the culture. I feel no social obligation whatsoever. I trust my morality in the narrow path I trek through the world as I work.

Being your own man does not mean taking advantage of anyone else.

The devil isn't made by what Mommy says or what Daddy says. The devil is there.

I believe in pursuing my own morality. That is all I have ever stuck by. It is my own morality that really matters.

The ethical regime [of the Jews] was quite definitely Ptolemaic, revolving around the small group of Jews, not the larger Gentile group and, accordingly, they learned to remain unimpressed by Gentile temporal power. Being unimpressed did not mean being unafraid material power might beat or starve one to death; it did mean refusing to surrender moral hegemony to the majority merely because it had power.

I live my life not to please my pastor or my church or fellow Christians. I live my life according to my own convictions and morals and core values and principles, and a lot of times, that's not going to add up to other Christians.

There are no "standards of Right". Ethics is balderdash. Each Star must go on its own orbit. To hell with "moral principle"; there is no such thing.

No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature.

God is dead not because He doesn't exist, but because we live, play, procreate, govern, and die as though He doesn't.

Jesus was not content to derive his ethics from the scriptures of his upbringing. He explicitly departed from them. [...] Since a principal thesis of this chapter is that we do not, and should not, derive our morals from scripture, Jesus has to be honoured as a model for that very thesis.