Samuel Gridley Howe Quotes

It is important to direct our intelligence with good intentions. Without intelligence, we cannot accomplish very much. Without good intentions, the way we exercise of our intelligence may have destructive results.

It would be most right, and most wise, and, therefore must involve least suffering.

… you were so worried about legal and illegal that you never stopped to think about whether it was right or wrong.

He is next to the gods whom reason, and not passion, impels; and who, after weighing the facts, can measure the punishment with discretion.

I think that unless you can take judgments of right and wrong like an automaton, you must have emotions because that is our only way of moral guidance.

More important than your obligation to follow your conscience, or at least prior to it, is your obligation to form your conscience correctly.

There are people who think that honesty is always the best policy. This is a superstition. There are times when the appearance of it is worth six of it.

A man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong - acting the part of a good man or of a bad.

My only fear is doing something contrary to human nature - the wrong thing, the wrong way, or at the wrong time.

Talking about freedom, about ethical issues, about responsibilities as well as convenience, is asking people to think about things they might prefer to ignore, such as whether their conduct is ethical. This can trigger discomfort, and some people may simply close their minds to it. It does not follow that we ought to stop talking about these things.

It’s a good thing when you don’t dare do something if you don’t think it’s right. But it’s not good when you think something’s not right because you don’t dare do it.

In ethics, prudence is not an important virtue, but in the world it is almost everything.

The feeling of right or wrong is the beginning of wisdom.

Good people can't out-think evil, cause evil thinks of things good folks can't think of.

Science, by itself, cannot supply us with an ethic. It can show us how to achieve a given end, and it may show us that some ends cannot be achieved. But among ends that can be achieved our choice must be decided by other than purely scientific considerations. If a man were to say, "I hate the human race, and I think it would be a good thing if it were exterminated," we could say, "Well, my dear sir, let us begin the process with you." But this is hardly argument, and no amount of science could prove such a man mistaken.

Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature

Wisdom is an affair of values, and of value judgments. It is intelligent conduct of human affairs.

One’s concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely with one’s personal interest in the issue.

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. This isn’t a good idea. This isn’t right.” “There’s all kinds of right,” he murmured. “On the spectrum, we’re still in the safe zone.” ... “Definitely right. Usually right,” Patch continued. “Mostly right. Maybe right.

Philosophy is fundamentally about how you come to terms with living your life and trying to do it in a wise manner, and, for me, that means decently and compassionately and courageously and so forth.

Intention, good or bad, is not enough.

When I want to think about what would be the right thing to do, the fair thing to do, the wise thing to do, I can just think of my grandmother. I can always hear her say, "Now sister, you know what's right. Just do right!"

I think "immoral" is probably the wrong word to use...I prefer the word "unethical."

...virtue is not merely a state in conformity with the right principle, but one that implies the right principle; and the right principle in moral conduct is prudence.

The right to do something doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.