moral self-righteousness Quotes

People are never more sincere than when they assume their own moral superiority.

The fierce words of Jesus addressed to the Pharisees of His day stretch across the bands of time. Today they are directed not only to fallen televangelists but to each of us. We miss Jesus' point entirely when we use His words as weapons against others. They are to be taken personally by each of us. This is the form and shape of Christian Pharisaism in our time. Hypocrisy is not hte prerogative of people in high places. The most impoverished among us is capable of it. Hypocrisy is the natural expression of what is meanest in us all.

most of us have to be self-righteous before we can be righteous.

Pierre was one of those people who are strong only when they feel themselves perfectly pure.

The general tendency [is] to be censorious of the vices to which one has not been tempted.

A sense of righteousness is even more dangerous than a violent temper.

Loud indignation against vice often stands for virtue in the eyes of bigots.

Creeds like pacifism or anarchism, which seem on the surface to imply a complete renunciation of power, rather encourage this habit of mind. For if you have embraced a creed which appears to be free from the ordinary dirtiness of politics ... the more you are in the right (and) everybody else should be bullied into thinking otherwise.

We are never more self-righteous than when giving up what we should have shunned all along.

The most dangerous diminutions of freedom come from those who are convinced of their moral rectitude.

The worst form of badness is human goodness when human goodness becomes a substitute for the new birth.