Moral Pragmatism Quotes

Our modern politicians … claim that they are too practical to be pure and too patriotic to be moral.

There's a presumption that somehow you calculate beforehand whether something is going to be good politically or not. I simply don't.

We must frankly confess, then, using our empirical common sense and ordinary practical prejudices, that in the world that actually is, the virtues of sympathy, charity, and non-resistance may be, and often have been, manifested in excess. ... You will agree to this in general, for in spite of the Gospel, in spite of Quakerism, in spite of Tolstoi, you believe in fighting fire with fire, in shooting down usurpers, locking up thieves, and freezing out vagabonds and swindlers.

Certainly he is not of the generation that regards honesty as the best policy. However, he does regard it as a policy.

I have never lived on principles. When I have had to act, I never first asked myself on what principles I was going to act, but I went at it and did what I thought fit. I have often reproached myself for my want of principle.

The impression I have of Justice Warren is that he was looking for the just result in a case regardless of fixed dogma or principles and I like to think that I'm in that mold.

Morality and expediency coincide more than the cynics allow.

Immoral: Inexpedient. Whatever in the long run and with regard to the greater number of instances men find to be generally inexpedient comes to be considered wrong, wicked, immoral. If mans notions of right and wrong have any other basis than this of expediency; if they originated, or could have originated, in any other way; if actions have in themselves a moral character apart from and nowise dependent on, their consequences-then all philosophy is a lie and reason a disorder of the mind.

A conscience is like a boat or a car. If you feel you need one, rent it.

Fact is Our Lord knew all about the power of money: He gave capitalism a tiny niche in His scheme of things, He gave it a chance, He even provided a first installment of funds. Can you beat that? It's so magnificent. God despises nothing. After all, if the deal had come off, Judas would probably have endowed sanatoriums, hospitals, public libraries or laboratories.

The greatest art of a politician is to render vice serviceable to the cause of virtue.

Justice is a contract of expediency, entered upon to prevent men harming or being harmed.

Is it not time to awaken from the deceitful dream of a golden age and to adopt a practical maxim for the direction of our political conduct that we, as well as the other inhabitants of the globe, are yet remote from the happy empire of perfect wisdom and perfect virtue?

Never lie when the truth is more profitable.

I have the knack of easing scruples.

If I had a device, it would be the true, the true only, leaving the beautiful and the good to settle matters afterwards as best they could.

Moral maxims are surprisingly useful on occasions when we can invent little else to justify our actions.

Why, a moral truth is a hollow tooth Which must be propped with gold.

If you can find a way that your principles are actually the strategically smartest thing to do, you've kind of figured it out.

Modern day Americans seem loathe to do the right thing unless it is also the smart thing – even “compassionate release” has to be touted for its cost-saving virtues.

The morality of compromise' sounds contradictory. Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat. Strong men don't compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised. I shall argue that strong men, conversely, know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle.

America can always be counted upon to do the right thing in the end, having first exhausted the available alternatives.

If it is true that vice can never be done away with, the science of government consists of making it contribute to the public good.

Rise above principle and do what's right.

It is often argued that religion is valuable because it makes men good, but even if this were true it would not be a proof that religion is true. That would be an extension of pragmatism beyond endurance. Santa Claus makes children good in precisely the same way, and yet no one would argue seriously that the fact proves his existence. The defense of religion is full of such logical imbecilities.