Joanna Lumley Quotes

Right and wrong are not simply matters of evolutionary impacts and what is natural.

I don't know how to play evil.

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

Morality must relate, at some level, to the well-being of conscious creatures. If there are more and less effective ways for us to seek happiness and to avoid misery in this world - and there clearly are - then there are right and wrong answers to questions of morality.

Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and when people start getting it confused, that means they need to sit down with some real people.

Modern morality is all about perception.

Without ethics, man has no future. This is to say, mankind without them cannot be itself. Ethics determine choices and actions and suggest difficult priorities.

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.

I want people to come away from my book with questions. Questions about virtue and goodness. Not answers.

Indeed, without emotion it seems unlikely we can even have morality.

As for morality, well that's all tied up with the question of consciousness.

I try not to do anything that's immoral.

The fundamental basis of ethics must be chosen in some non-scientific way.

The foundations of morality are like all other foundations: If you dig too much about them, the superstructure will come tumbling down.

Our system of morals is a body of imperfect social generalizations expressed in terms of emotion.

Everybody is grappling with their own moral compass, and that needle, like any needle, can't just stick. It's always floating a little bit, and depending on where you're standing, it's hard to read.

You have to follow your moral compass: it's a good guide of telling you what is right and wrong.

Our moral philosophy determines our values - what we care about and what we don't care about - and our values determine our decisions, actions, and beliefs. Therefore, moral philosophy applies to everything in our lives.

One needs to know what is right and what is wrong.

If Truth is taken away from us, then Right and Wrong are taken from us as well. If we don't know Right and Wrong, then we can't, we won't control ourselves, but will look to someone else to bring order through brute force and raw power. We will be controlled by a tyrant, and we will no longer be free.

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.

We become moral when we are unhappy.

Of moral purpose I see no trace in Nature. That is an article of exclusively human manufacture and very much to our credit.

I'm not any more moral than my neighbors.

Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does.