“They understood the basic principles of morals: that nothing is moral always, and anything is moral under the right circumstances.”
"The Persistence of Vision", The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (March 1978), reprinted as the title story in The Persistence of Vision (1978)
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John Varley23
American science fiction author 1947Related quotes
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–1859) British historian and Whig politician
Speech in the House of Commons (5 April 1830) https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1830/apr/05/the-jews#column_1313 in favour of Robert Grant's Jewish Disabilities Bill <br class="br">1830s
“Moral issues are always terribly complex for someone without principles.”
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English mystery novelist and Christian apologist
Misattributed
“Nothing, that is morally wrong, can be politically right.”
William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom
No citation to Gladstone found. Hannah More https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_More in 1837 in Hints Towards Forming the Character of a Young Princess https://books.google.com/books?id=lv5JAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA179&lpg=PA179&dq=%E2%80%9CNothing+that+is+morally+wrong+can+be+politically+right.%E2%80%9D&source=bl&ots=ne_BjY9onV&sig=8RyZJKi_o7AvvR3N9WcQUU5Q0TI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=84mhVIufIoahyASOrYCoAw&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CNothing%20that%20is%20morally%20wrong%20can%20be%20politically%20right.%E2%80%9D&f=false, The Works of Hannah More, Vol. 4, said the following on p. 179: "On the Whole, we need not hesitate to assert, that in the long course of events, nothing, that is morally wrong, can be politically right. Nothing, that is inequitable, can be finally successful." <br class="br">Misattributed
Auberon Herbert (1838–1906) British politician
A Politician in Trouble about His Soul
“Nations are nothing but morals: If their morals disappear, they disappear.”
Ahmed Shawqi (1868–1932) Egyptian poet and dramatist
https://www.aldiwan.net/poem7890.html <br class="br">Original: (sd) وَإِنَّمَا الْأُمَمُ الْأَخْلَاقُ مَا بَقِيَتْ / فَإِنْ هُمُ ذَهَبَتْ أَخْلَاقُهُمْ ذَهَبُوا
“Anything that is moral for a group to do is moral for one person to do.”
Robert A. Heinlein book Podkayne of Mars
There must be a flaw in that, since I’ve always been taught that it is wrong to take the law in your own hands. But I can’t find the flaw and it sounds axiomatic, self-evident. Switch it around. If something is wrong for one person to do, can it possibly be made right by having a lot of people (a government) agree to do it together? Even unanimously?
If anything is wrong, it is wrong—and vox populi can’t change it.
Source: Podkayne of Mars (1963), Chapter 13 (p. 169)
C. West Churchman (1913–2004) American philosopher and systems scientist
Source: 1960s - 1970s, Guest editorial: Wicked problems (1967), p. 142 cited in: Rob Hundman (2010) Weerbarstig veranderen. p. 38
“There can be no compromise on moral principles.”
Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher
Source: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism
“A moral system valid for all is basically immoral.”
Friedrich Nietzsche book Beyond Good and Evil
Generally attributed to Nietzsche, this is a quotation from Curtis Cate's Friedrich Nietzsche: A Biography (2003) and is the author's interpretation of Nietzsche's Aphorism 221 (Beyond Good and Evil)
Misattributed