Everyone’s got their own world compass that determines what they will and won’t do. Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner, Freakonomics, Sky Atlantic 2010; viz also book
Force always attracts men of low morality. Albert Einstein, The World As I See It
Mortality
Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep. John Keats, On Seeing the Elgin Marbles, 1817
It’s time for our business and political leaders to help redefine morality beyond sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll to include lying, hypocrisy, and callous indifference to those in need. Arianna Huffington
What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, and immorality is what they dislike. Alfred North Whitehead, Dialogues, 1954
So far, about morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after. Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon
All universal moral principles are idle fancies. Marquis de Sade
The important thing is moral choice. Evil has to exist along with good, in order that moral choice may operate. Life is sustained by the grinding opposition of moral entities. Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
Do you want me to tell you what’s immoral? War is immoral, poverty is immoral, racism is immoral, police brutality is immoral, oppression is immoral, genocide is immoral, imperialism is immoral: this country represents all those things. Punishment Park, 1971
I would rather have my son or daughter in the grave than commit sins of immorality. Warren Jeffs, FLDS prophet, cited Escaping Polygamy s3e11: Forbidden Love
Nazi occupied Poland: In April 1944 with the outcome of World War II hanging in the balance two Jewish prisoners lay hidden near the outer fence of Auschwitz concentration camp. On 10th April 1944 they abandoned their hiding place and cut through the fence … ‘They escaped in order to warn the world that Auschwitz was a killing mechanism.’ 1944: Should We Bomb Auschwitz? Professor Michael Berenbaum, historian, BBC 2019
One of the greatest moral questions of the 20th century: 1944: Should we bomb Auschwitz? ibid.
‘Auschwitz should have had the most outrageous response while it was happening, and that’s a moral failure on the West.’ ibid. Barenbaum
Why was the greatest crime of the 20th crime of modern history allowed to proceed unimpeded for almost two years? A million Jews perish there by gas. It wasn’t because of lack of evidence. ibid.
‘Some of the groups would be frightened and disorientated, others would be almost relieved.’ ibid. prisoner eye-witness escapee
Rabbi Weissmandl: An appeal for help but also a rebuke for those who refuse … He demanded that the Allied air forces bomb Auschwitz. He was the first to do so. ibid.
June 1944: A month after the deportations from Hungary began, 109 trains had arrived at Auschwitz, with an average of 2,975 Jews per train. ibid. caption
‘The first thing was – you breathe in and there’s a very strange smell. It was sort of sweetish and burning.’ ibid. on arrival at Auschwitz
Don’t you just miss the days when America was just morally bankrupt? Bill Maher: But I’m Not Wrong, Sky Comedy 2021
That’s the trouble with this country. Its morals are all shot. I mean, look at the young people. Girls throwing cigarettes right out into the street, and rocking in the backseat of a car, and wearing skirts so short you can see everything they’ve got. The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre 1967 starring George Seagal & Jason Robards & Ralph Meeker & Jack Nicholson & Jean Hale & Jan Merlin & Clint Ritchie & David Canary & Harold J Stone et al, director Roger Corman, Capone
Homosexuality, dope, immorality in general. These are the enemies of strong societies. Nixon by Nixon: In His Own Words, Sky Atlantic 2018
Immorality, no less than morality, has at all times found support in religion. Sigmund Freud
Immorality is the word we use to describe people that are not sinning the same way we are. Shannon L Alder
The same president who has insisted that core moralism drives him has brought America to its lowest moral standing in history. Glenn Greenwald, A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency
Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and immorality. Henry Fielding, 1707-54, Joseph Andrews