Robert M. Pirsig Quotes

It is good insofar as it is not evil.

The rules of morality are not the conclusion of our reason.

The essence of morality is a questioning about morality; and the decisive move of human life is to use ceaselessly all light to look for the origin of the opposition between good and evil.

One has only as much morality as one has philosophy and poetry.

I would like us to think about it more explicitly, and not take our intuitions as the given of ethics, but rather to reflect on it, and be more open about the fact that something is an ethical issues and think what we ought to do about it.

The first idea the child must acquire is that of the difference between good and evil.

I don't subscribe to any particular doctrine or ideology. I just think that there's kind of a good and bad, the good being life in its purest, happiest form, and the other being the darker side of existence.

Willing or preferring is the same with respect to good and evil, that judging is with respect to truth or falsehood.

What is right is not derived from the rule, but the rule arises from our knowledge of what is right

Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is Good.

Right and wrong as moral principles do not change. They are applicable and reliable determinants whether the situations with which we deal are simple or complicated. There is always a right and wrong to every question which requires our solution.

I know one thing you don't. I know the difference between Right and Wrong. They didn't teach you that at school.' Rose didn't answer; the woman was quite right: the two words meant nothing to her. Their taste was extinguished by stronger foods--Good and Evil.

Is not virtue a negation of becoming?

The feeling of right or wrong is the beginning of wisdom.

Morality, when vigorously alive, sees farther than intellect, and provides unconsciously for intellectual difficulties.

Tolerance cannot afford to have anything to do with the fallacy that evil may convert itself to good.

In philosophy class I think we finally decided that 'good' is an infinitely recursive term - it can't be defined except in terms of itself. Good is good because it's better than bad, though why it's better to be good than bad depends on how you define good, and on and on.

When goodness is lost, it is replaced by morality.

Abstractions about right and wrong, whether they are as old as Thou Shalt Not Kill or as modern as Do Your Own Thing, often serve only to confuse and weaken genuine moral decision.

I doubt not, but from self-evident Propositions, by necessary Consequences, as incontestable as those in Mathematics, the measures of right and wrong might be made out.

Conscience is merely our own judgment of the right or wrong of our actions, and so can never be a safe guide unless enlightened by the word of God.

Inability to tell good from evil is the greatest worry of man's life.

There being no absolute and universal standard of right, terrorism must be held to be wrong in every case.

I think I'm a pretty moral guy, a very moral guy, but I'm not perfect.

At the end of the day, if there are truly ethical considerations, those have to override scientific considerations.