Charles Bradlaugh Quotes

She thought there were no Gods; no one was to blame; and so she evolved this atheist's religion of doing good for the sake of goodness.

You can do more good by being good than any other way.

Whatever good you would do out of fear of punishment, or hope of reward hereafter, the Atheist would do simply because it is good; and being so, he would receive the far surer and more certain reward, springing from well-doing, which would constitute his pleasure, and promote his happiness.

We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed.

A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

Behaving morally because of a hope of reward or a fear of punishment is not morality.

Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.

The only way to show a true respect for God is to act morally while ignoring God’s existence.

We don’t need any sort of religious orientation to lead a life that is ethical, compassionate & kind.

Some people automatically associate morality and altruism with a religious vision of the world. But I believe it is a mistake to think that morality is an attribute only of religion. We can imagine two types of spirituality: one tied to religion, while the other arises spontaneously in the human heart as an expression of love for our neighbors and a desire to do them good.

Virtue is indeed its own reward.

I believe in doing good for good's sake.

As to ethics, unfortunately, we are still at sea. We never did have any popular base for what little ethics we knew, except the religious theories, and now that our faith is shaken in those theories we cannot account for ethics at all. It is no wonder we behave badly, we are literally ignorant of the laws of ethics, which is the simplest of sciences, the most necessary, the most continuously needed. The childish misconduct of our 'revolted youth' is quite equaled by that of older people, and neither young nor old seem to have any understanding of the reasons why conduct is 'good' or 'bad.

He who talks much about virtue in the abstract, begins to be suspected; it is shrewdly guessed that where there is great preaching there will be little almsgiving.

The primary goal in the education of children is to teach, and to give the example of, a virtuous life.

An educated person must learn to act justly, beginning, first of all, with his thoughts, then later in his deeds. That is what it means to be educated.

Little would be wanting to the happiness of life, if every man could conform to the right as soon as he was shown it.

So far any one shuns evils, so far as he does good.

Virtue, though she gets her beginning from nature, yet receives her finishing touches from learning.

Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.

The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be. Try to make people moral, and you lay the groundwork for vice.

The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance.

The virtuous man is driven by responsibility, the non-virtuous man is driven by profit.

Decency is not news; it is buried in the obituaries - but it is a force stronger than crime.

Every man prefers virtue, when there is not some strong incitement to transgress its precepts.