Ethics

"I'm convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered."

"The Secretary of State, the President, they all talk about "values". A "value" is a subjective desire, not an objective truth. George Washington said: "The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality." If you had said, "Oh, Mr. Washington, you mean in our 'values?'" Washington would have replied, "What the hell are you talking about?""

"The fact that there are not “universal values,” Xi Jinping explains, does not mean that there are no “common values” such as peace, development, or justice. However, these common values can and should be interpreted according to different political systems and national traditions. How the common values are interpreted in China or Russia is not the same as in the United States or Europe. Of course, this is the excuse of all totalitarian regimes that refuse to grant to their victims [civil] rights, freedom, and democracy. They claim that these are “Western” values and cannot be applied universally. Xi Jinping’s words are music to the ears of all [mal]dictators in the world, and this is why they support [the People’s Republic of] China at the United Nations every time its abysmally low [civil] rights record is denounced."

"The idea that an aim can be reasonable for its own sake—on the basis of virtues that insight reveals it to have in itself—without reference to some kind of subjective gain or advantage, is utterly alien to subjective reason, even where it rises above the consideration of immediate utilitarian values and devotes itself to reflection about the social order as a whole."

"Is it because Westerners have come to lose their intellectuality through over-developing their capacity for action that they console themselves by inventing theories which set action above everything, and even go so far, as in the case of pragmatism, as to deny that there exists anything of value beyond action; or is the contrary true, that it is the acceptance of this point of view that has led to the intellectual atrophy we see today?"

"Everything excellent limits us momentarily because we feel unable to match up to it; only insofar as we subsequently accept it into our own culture, absorb it as belonging to our own mental and temperamental powers, do we come to love and value it."

"It is not our affluence, or our plumbing, or our clogged freeways that grip the imagination of others. Rather, it is the values upon which our system is built. These values imply our adherence not only to liberty and individual freedom, but also to international peace, law and order, and constructive social purpose. When we depart from these values, we do so at our peril."

"Try Not To Become a Man of Success But Rather Try To Become a Man of Value"

"Values that are expressed but that don't change behavior are not really values, they are lies that you tell yourself."

"No man can purchase his virtue too dear, for it is the only thing whose value must ever increase with the price it has cost us."

"Both the court and the general public give a conventional value to men and things, and then are surprised to find themselves deceived by it. This is as if arithmeticians should give a variable an arbitrary value to the figures in a sum, and then, after restoring their true and regular value in the addition, be astonished at the incorrectness of their answer."

"Blessed, plainly, is that life which is not valued at the estimation of outsiders, but is known, as judge of itself, by its own inner feelings. It needs no popular opinion as its reward in any way; nor has it any fear of punishments. Thus the less it strives for glory, the more it rises above it."

"Even though moral values are not simply “chosen” but rather “discovered”, it is central to the democratic objectivist position that the free individual acceptance or recognition of value is an essential and not an accidental requirement in valuing its moral standing. The use of force always requires a particular justification. Moral truth is not a sufficient condition of this and even not a necessary condition. A democratic objectivist is not insensitive to Devlin's conventionalist argument about “social disintegration”. But while convnentionalists argue against moral pluralism because they consider it to be a sign of such disintegration taking place, from the pluralist point of view, enforcing one particular morality is, on the contrary, seen as a disintegrating social force, which would lead to upheavals, civil war, repression and discrimination."

"The truth is, the secular world isn't too enamored with Jesus. And they're not too enamored with someone who is leading people to Jesus. So if you're out there talking about people's sins, and you're talking about righteousness, you will get pushback. Jesus Himself did. The apostles did. I mean, there's persecution all up and down the line."

"Canada has a passive-aggressive culture, with a lot of sarcasm and righteousness. That went with my weird messianic complex. The ego is a fascinating monster. I was taught from a young age that I had to serve, so that turned into me thinking I had to save the planet."

"The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon."

"I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread."

"Righteousness exalteth a nation."

"A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast; but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel."

"Every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe."

"Be not righteous overmuch."

"The ungodly ... reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves,..."

"The righteous care about justice for the poor,"

"Gray hair is a crown of beauty when it is found in the way of righteousness."

"People don't ever seem to realise that doing what's right's no guarantee against misfortune."

"If you see oppression of the poor, and justice and righteousness trampled in a country, do not be astounded."

"For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts."

"The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him."

"For I say to you that if your righteousness does not surpass that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will by no means enter into the Kingdom of heavens."

"Listen to me, you who are pursuing righteousness, You who are seeking the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn And to the quarry from which you were dug."

"גֹּ֣ול עַל־יְהוָ֣ה דַּרְכֶּ֑ךָ וּבְטַ֥ח עָ֝לָ֗יו וְה֣וּא יַעֲשֶֽׂה׃ וְהֹוצִ֣יא כָאֹ֣ור צִדְקֶ֑ךָ וּ֝מִשְׁפָּטֶ֗ךָ כַּֽצָּהֳרָֽיִם׃"

"אֹ֭הֵב צְדָקָ֣ה וּמִשְׁפָּ֑ט חֶ֥סֶד יְ֝הוָ֗ה מָלְאָ֥ה הָאָֽרֶץ׃"

"Wilt Thou indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there are fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou indeed sweep away and not forgive the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from Thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, that so the righteous should be as the wicked; that be far from Thee; shall not the Judge of all the earth do justly? … Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the LORD, who am but dust and ashes. Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous; wilt Thou destroy all the city for lack of five? … Oh, let not the LORD be angry, and I will speak yet but this once. Peradventure ten shall be found there?"

"My heart hath often been deeply afflicted under a feeling that the standard of pure righteousness is not lifted up to the people by us, as a society, in that clearness which it might have been, had we been as faithful as we ought to be to the teachings of Christ."

"The righteousness of Jesus Christ is one of those great mysteries, which the angels desire to look into, and seems to be one of the first lessons that God taught men after the fall."

"Leaving sin is not enough, unless we embrace righteousness."

"The atom bomb was no great decision. It was merely another powerful weapon in the arsenal of righteousness."

"Passive righteousness tells us that God does not need our good works. Active righteousness tells us that our neighbor does. The aim and direction of good works are horizontal, not vertical."

"Even a millstone will float in the river for a righteous man."

"When righteousness is cut off, injustice is increased."

"Who can compete with righteousness? It creates life."

"A man's sentiments are generally just and right, while it is second selfish thought which makes him trim and adopt some other view. The best reforms are worked out when sentiment operates, as it does in women, with the indignation of righteousness."

"A lot of the time, I write a lot of angry stuff, but then I don't want to be a finger-pointer - I'd rather be a cheerleader than a judge. I don't want to preach as if I'm in some position of righteousness, but I do want to speak my mind and scream at the clouds and shout out of the pit of hopelessness that I sometimes think the human race is in."

"The holy spirit means the invisible power of Jehovah, holy because he is holy. This power of Jehovah operated upon the minds of honest men who loved and who were devoted to righteousness, directing them in the writing of the Bible. The spirit of God, i. e., his invisible power, moved upon the waters and thereby he created."

"Whoever acts righteously, whether male or female, and is a believer, We will certainly enable him lead a pure life and surely We will bestow on such their reward according to the best of their deeds."

"By no means shall you attain to righteousness until you spend (benevolently) out of what you love; and whatever thing you spend, God surely knows it."

"You have to expect spiritual warfare whenever you stand up for righteousness or call attention to basic values. It's just a matter of light battling the darkness. But the light wins every time. You can't throw enough darkness on light to put it out."

"To our constant prayers for the welfare of our country, and of the whole human race, we shall esteem it our duty and happiness to unite our most earnest endeavors to promote the pure and undefiled religion of Christ; for as this secures eternal felicity to men in a future state, so we are persuaded that good Christians will always be good citizens, and that where righteousness prevails among individuals the Nation will be great and happy. Thus while just government protects all in their religious rights, true religion affords to government its surest support."

"Another definition of a hero is someone who is concerned about other people's well-being, and will go out of his or her way to help them -- even if there is no chance of a reward. That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it is the right thing to do, is indeed without a doubt, a real superhero."

"That swarm of ants that I observed, each one following the one ahead, have every one been Indra in the world of the gods by virtue of their own past action. And now, by virtue of their deeds done in the past, they have gradually fallen to the state of ants."