Francis Schaeffer Quotes

I am certainly not an intellectual relativist, nor a moral relativist.

Relativism is not indifference; on the contrary, passionate indifference is necessary in order for you not to hear the voices that oppose your absolute decrees.

Liberal relativism has its roots in the natural right tradition of tolerance or in the notion that everyone has a natural right to the pursuit of happiness as he understands happiness; but in itself it is a seminary of intolerance.

I want to give moral relativism the good spanking it deserves.

I can only say that, while my own opinions as to ethics do not satisfy me, other people's satisfy me still less.

Moral relativism has a reputation for being compassionate, caring and humane, but it is an extremely useful philosophy for tyrants.

Moral relativism says morality is relative, not absolute, I want to show moral relativism, in its popular form, is logically incoherent.

There is nothing divine about morality, it is a purely human affair.

Today there seems to be only one absolute thing: relativism.

The atheist is cheating whenever he makes a moral judgment, acting as though it has an objective reference, when his philosophy in fact precludes it.

Virtue is relative to the actions and ages of each of us in all that we do.

How do I hold my truth to be the truth when everyone else believes their truth to be different.

Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. All systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth.

I personally wonder... regardless of whether you're a religious person or not, everybody comes into every conversation with a particular worldview and things that you believe are right or wrong. The question is can you counsel from a totally non-value-based position?

Morality is always derivative. It stems from one's worldview.

I am someone who values truth - actual truth as opposed to "truthiness." I am also someone who has been trained in deconstruction in the literary theory department of Yale University, so I am someone who is tempted to believe that no absolute truth is possible.

There are no indisputable truths.

Each person calls barbarism whatever is not his or her own practice.... We may call Cannibals barbarians, in respect to the rulesof reason, but not in respect to ourselves, who surpass them in every kind of barbarity.

Those who have no absolute values cannot let the relative remain merely relative; they are always raising it to the level of the absolute.

The moral earth, too, is round! The moral earth, too, has its antipodes! The antipodes, too, have their right to exist! There is still another world to be discovered--and more than one! Set sail, you philosophers!

Evil may be 'unscientific' but so is a song or a smile.

Either what we hold to be right and good and true IS right and good and true, for all mankind, or we're just another robber tribe.

It is not that there are no certainties, it is that it is an absolute certainty that there are no certainties.

Good and evil - I don't believe that there is hanging out there, anywhere, something called good and something called evil.

There is no such thing as an absolute truth to be discovered.