Huston Smith Quotes

Politicians may do as they please, so long as they violate no rule of right, no principle of justice, no law of God; but in no world, in no order, or condition, have men the right to do wrong.

I think the greater responsibility, in terms of morality, is where leadership begins.

Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.

I think the first duty of society is justice.

The science of morality is about maximizing psychological and social health. It's really no more inflammatory than that.

Religion may have become a codification of morality, and it may fortify it, but it's not the origin of it.

What I'm doing is writing stories about women who care about justice. They are women who think about the difference between right and wrong, what's legal and illegal, ethical and unethical, moral and immoral.

Moral principle is a looser bond than pecuniary interest.

Civilization depends on morality.

Whereas religions may serve a benign purpose by letting many people feel comfortable with the level of morality they themselves can attain, no religion holds its members to the high standards of moral responsibility that the secular world of science and medicine does!

It is often said by religious people that without its framework, there is no sense of right or wrong. My view is that religion comes after ethics.

When we think of eternity, and of the future consequences of all human conduct, what is there in this life that should make any man contradict the dictates of his conscience, the principles of justice, the laws of religion, and of God?

To do injustice is more disgraceful than to suffer it.

What's to become of the morally sound? Left out in the cold, I suppose. We must heal the sick.

Real morality is possible when the sanctions for morality are also tangible and real. Therefore, atheism shifts the basis of morality from faith in god to obligations of social living. Moral conduct is not a passport to heaven; it is social necessity.

Compassion and justice are companions, not choices.

Let us ask what is best - not what is customary. Let us love temperance - let us be just - let us refrain from bloodshed.

The bottom line is we are trying to do what's right. We don't just say we believe in God - we have active relationships with God.

Of all the things of a man's soul which he has within him, justice is the greatest good and injustice the greatest evil.

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.

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

We talk so much about one's rights... so little about what is actually right.

I hate injustice, I despise inequity, I condemn hypocrisy, I abhor the lack of reason.

Without the fear of God, men do not even observe justice and charity among themselves.

For most men the love of justice is only the fear of suffering injustice.