Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

IMMORAL, adj. Inexpedient. Whatever in the long run and with regard to the greater number of instances men find to be generally inexpedient comes to be considered wrong, wicked, immoral.

A good End cannot sanctify evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it.

If two wrongs don't make a right, then what do three wrongs make? What about four?

If the myth of pure evil is that evil is committed with the intention of causing harm and an absence of moral considerations, then it applies to very few acts of so-called 'pure evil' because most evildoers believe what they are doing is forgivable or justifiable.

Asking someone else to do something immoral is immoral.

Usually people are ashamed when they do something wrong. People love to live in the darkness... I live in the light. I didn't do anything wrong by saving human life.

Morality and expediency coincide more than the cynics allow.

No crime can ever be defended on rational grounds.

Principle is ever my motto, not expediency.

The ends do not justify the means. The means are the ends.

I never think the ends justify the means.

If you say morality is just what you like, you lose the metaphysical level of what in the history of philosophy is called 'categorical imperative.'

My general philosophy of playing bad guys, which I've sort of done, you know, half the time is, you know, very few people who we view as bad guys get out of bed and think, 'What evil, terrible thing am I going to do today?' Most people see their motivations as justified - as, you know, justifying whatever they do.

Even people that are evil believe what they're doing is good. I don't agree with those people, but it's about understanding that there are those kinds of points of view.

All sin and all crime comes from the same thing: 'I decided. I decided this was okay.'

I can understand why people are bad.

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.

Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.

Good and evil lay side by side.

You don't just have people who wake up in the morning and say, "What evil things can I do today, because I'm Mr. Evil?" People do things for what they think are justified reasons. Everybody is the hero of their own story, and you have to keep that in mind. If you read a lot of history, as I do, even the worst and most monstrous people thought they were the good guys. We're all very tangled knots.

What is right is not always the same as what is legal

Strictly speaking, one should not even rightly compare virginity to marriage because you cannot make a comparison between two things if one is good and the other evil.

Life doesn't require ideals. It requires standards of action.