“The entire morality of the world could be summarized in the words, do as others do.”

—  Multatuli

Multatuli, The Oyster and the Eagle: Selected Aphorisms and Parables

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The entire morality of the world could be summarized in the words, do as others do." by Multatuli?
Multatuli photo
Multatuli 5
Dutch author 1820–1887

Related quotes

Flower A. Newhouse photo

“Christ's entire ministry can be summarized in just two words, live love.”

Flower A. Newhouse (1909–1994) American mystic

Lecture discussing Christian mysticism
Mysticism

African Spir photo

“The first principle from which stems the moral of about all people at all time; it is summarized in this precept: Love thy neighbour as thyself, and: do as you would be done by.”

African Spir (1837–1890) Russian philosopher

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 38 ["… moral consciousness is an innate and intimate revelation of the absolute, which exceed every empirical data..." - see above].

Caitlín R. Kiernan photo

“I would not do this. I swear I would not do this, if I could find other words in me.”

Caitlín R. Kiernan (1964) writer

(20 December 2004)
Unfit for Mass Consumption (blog entries), 2004
Context: I'm not kidding, and I'm not being hyperbolic — sometimes I hate this thing I do more than I could ever say. Sometimes, it seems that I spend my days dragging people whose only crime is that I am their creator through the filth and pain and degradation of my own despicable imagination. Where is the good in this? Where is the resolution? Where is the sense of it? If I had even a scintilla of belief in a "higher" intelligence of any sort, days like yesterday (and, by extension, today) would, on the one hand, give me some degree of sympathy for the idiot dieties unable to craft a better universe, and, on the other hand, it makes me grateful I have no such beliefs, because the anger I would have for that "higher" whatever would be inexpressible. And I cannot imagine that there are actually people out there — self-professed "horror" writers — who are trying to elicit these emotions in others, who are purposefully driving their characters on through all the futile, dead-end nightmares that might be devised. I would not do this. I swear I would not do this, if I could find other words in me.

Gail Carson Levine photo
Jordan Peterson photo

“You should be able to do things that you wouldn't do. That's the definition of a genuinely moral person. They could do it, but they don't.”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast #36 [@2:32:37]
Podcast

Basava photo

“Live morally, do not aspire for other's Wealth, Women and God.”

Basava (1134–1196) a 12th-century Hindu philosopher, statesman, Kannada Bhakti poet of Lingayatism

Basavanna's Preachings

Robert Patrick (playwright) photo

“Reverend Lawson:This entire book is nothing but young men doing homosexual things together.
Bill: Well, what else could they do together?”

Robert Patrick (playwright) (1937) Playwright, poet, lyricist, short story writer, novelist

Bill Batchelor Road
Untold Decades: Seven Comedies of Gay Romance (1988)

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“I do not think anyone can define "behavior that tends toward extinction" as being "moral" without stretching the word "moral" all out of shape.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

The Pragmatics of Patriotism (1973)
Context: I now define "moral behavior" as "behavior that tends toward survival." I won't argue with philosophers or theologians who choose to use the word "moral" to mean something else, but I do not think anyone can define "behavior that tends toward extinction" as being "moral" without stretching the word "moral" all out of shape.

Hasan al-Askari photo

“It is sufficient for your morality, not to involve yourself with the things you do not approve of in others.”

Hasan al-Askari (846–874) Eleventh of the Twelve Imams

Majlisi, Bihārul Anwār, vol.78, p. 377
General

Felix Frankfurter photo

“Of compelling consideration is the fact that words acquire scope and function from the history of events which they summarize.”

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American judge

Phelps Dodge Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board, 313 U.S. 177, 185-186 (1941).
Judicial opinions

Related topics