Jean Cocteau Quotes

One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion.

In the past, the respect people had for religion meant that ethical practice was maintained through a majority following one religion or another. But this is no longer the case. We must therefore find some other way of establishing basic ethical principles.

He who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage.

The very essence of our civilization is that we give a paramount place to morality in all our affairs, public or private.

Morality represents for everybody a thoroughly definite and ascertained idea: the idea of human conduct regulated in a certain manner.

Morality is the Science of harmonious relations between intelligent beings.

Morality which is based on ideas, or on an ideal, is an unmitigated evil.

In reality, moral rules are directions for running the human machine. Every moral rule is there to prevent a breakdown, or a strain, or a friction, in the running of that machine. That is why these rules at first seem to be constantly interfering with our natural inclinations.

The truth is, of course, that the curtness of the Ten Commandments is an evidence, not of the gloom and narrowness of a religion, but, on the contrary, of its liberality and humanity. It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted; precisely because most things are permitted, and only a few things are forbidden.

But the nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end.

Ethics are more important than laws. Which means that the exact note is less important than the feeling of the note.

Some are able and humane men and some are low-grade individuals with the morals of a goat, the artistic integrity of a slot machine, and the manners of a floorwalker with delusions of grandeur.

Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other.

Virtue is despotic; life, reputation, every earthly good, must be surrendered at her voice. The law may seem hard, but it is the guardian of what it commands; and is the only sure defence of happiness.

Economics is a theoretical science and as such abstains from any judgement of value. It is not its task to tell people what ends they should aim at. It is a science of the means to be applied for attainment of ends chosen, not, to be sure, a science of the choosing of ends. Ultimate decisions, the valuations and the choosing of ends, are beyond the scope of any science. Science never tells a man how he should act; it merely shows how a man must act if he wants to attain definite ends.

Let us with Caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.

Morality must be the heart of our existence, if it is to be what it wants to be for us. The highest form of philosophy is ethics. Thus all philosophy begins with "I am." The highest statement of cognition must be an expression of that fact which is the means and ground for all cognition, namely, the goal of the I.

There is no true and abiding morality that is not founded in religion.

An ethic isn't a fact you can look up. It's a way of thinking.

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.

There was no other God, religion, or lawful magistracy, than conscience, which teaches all men the precepts of Justice, to do no injury, to live honestly, and give everyone his due.

Absolute morality is the regulation of conduct in such a way that pain shall not be inflicted.

The content of scientific theory itself offers no moral foundation for the personal conduct of life.

Morality must always precede and accompany religion, and yet religion is much more than morality.