“This very inadequate notion of virtue is an outcome of taboo morality, and has done untold harm.”

— Bertrand Russell

Source: 1950s, Human Society in Ethics and Politics (1954), p. 32
Context: If throughout your life you abstain from murder, theft, fornication, perjury, blasphemy, and disrespect toward your parents, your church, and your king, you are conventionally held to deserve moral admiration even if you have never done a single kind or generous or useful action. This very inadequate notion of virtue is an outcome of taboo morality, and has done untold harm.

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logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and politi… 1872–1970

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