Roy Hattersley Quotes

Opinions upon moral questions are more often the expression of strongly felt expediency than of careful ethical reasoning

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.

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

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

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.

Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.

Ethics are not necessarily to do with being law-abiding. I am very interested in the moral path, doing the right thing.

I try not to do anything that's immoral.

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

No morality can be founded on authority, even if the authority were divine.

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

What we call “morals” is simply blind obedience to words of command.

Nature has no principles. She furnishes us with no reason to believe that human life is to be respected. Nature, in her indifference, makes no distinction between good and evil.

Morality is the best of all devices for leading mankind by the nose.

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.

What are the values that give meaning? What is the line that you will never cross, because on this side you're good, and on this side you're evil.

Do what's right and you'll please some of the people and astound the rest.

Nothing but the right can ever be expedient, since that can never be true expediency which would sacrifice a great good to a less.

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

Throughout my life, I have always tried to do what is right.

Conscience has no more to do with gallantry than it has with politics.

I'm not any more moral than my neighbors.

Call me old-fashioned, but I believe that morality is not just a matter of opinion.

Modern morality is all about perception.

For me, the only sources of moral values are the pursuit of understanding and the pursuit of happiness.