Richard Dawkins Quotes

The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot.

To what extent is any given man morally responsible for any given act? We do not know.

If I am a pure product of genetic, cultural, or class determination, I have no responsibility for my action in the world and, therefore, it is not possible for me to speak of ethics. Of course, this assumption of responsibility does not mean that we are not conditioned genetically, culturally, and socially. It means that we know ourselves to be conditioned but not determined.

There is not in all America a more dangerous trait than the deification of mere smartness unaccompanied by any sense of moral responsibility.

Humans are, as Sartre put it, 'condemned to be free'. To insist that science, or God, objectively defines moral values is to abandon our responsibility as human beings to make such judgments.

There is nothing like a naturalistic orientation to dispel all these morbid thoughts of "sin" and "free will" and "moral responsibility.

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

The idea of determinism combined with complete human responsibility struck me as very hard to reconcile with an idea of justice, let alone mercy.

What influences our behavior, and what our level of responsibility is, are very complex issues. And anytime we try to make this simplistic, we don't serve people well.

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.

The power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

Belief is a moral act for which the believer is to be held responsible.

Human beings should be held accountable. Leave God alone. He has enough problems.

One cannot prescribe to anyone whether he should follow an ethic of absolute ends or an ethic of responsibility.

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.

Everythings a choice. Nobody's born good. Nobody's born evil. It's always a choice.

Man is a responsible moral agent, though he is also divinely controlled; man is divinely controlled, though he is also a responsible moral agent.

I'm not sure I understand how responsibility for our choices makes sense if they are not determined.

[Humans'] capacity to intervene, to compare, to judge, to decide, to choose, to desist makes them capable of acts of greatness, of dignity, and, at the same time, of the unthinkable in terms of indignity.

Only man makes Karma.

Mankind's greatest gift... is that we have free choice.

In terms of morals there is no such thing as ‘state.’ Just men. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts.

Liberty is an opportunity for doing good, but this is only so when it is also an opportunity for doing wrong.