Sam Harris Quotes

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.

I consider ethics, as well as religion, as supplements to law in the government of man.

Religion without humanity is very poor human stuff.

My faith informs everything I think and do. It's part of my value system. And to suggest that I can somehow separate and divorce that from the rest of me is not possible.

However, if the religions in essence merely repeat statements from the United Nations Human Rights Declaration, such a Declaration becomes superfluous; an ethic is more than rights.

The difference between religion and morality lies simply in the classical division of things into the divine and the human, if one only interprets this correctly.

The notion that there is no basic value system is far more incoherent or invalid than the notion that there are essential values. Every religion can tell you it has basic values. You ask a Christian, most Christians would say love God and love your neighbor. Is that the entirety of Christianity? No one in his right mind would say it is.

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

I think we have to give religion its due. I think we have to respect those for whom religion is important, but equally respect those who can achieve good morality without religion.

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.

Religion is an important institution. A nation without religion cannot survive.

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

Golden Rule lies at the heart of every religious and of every ethical system of morality, it what makes us look at one another. The religions have all adopted it independently, Chinese, Indian, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, because they find it works and because it says something very deep about the structure of our humanity.

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

All true religion must stand on true morality.

For many, religion has to do with what we are allowed to do and not allowed to do. In the end, that doesn't bear fruit.

As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side.

These practices - non-killing, truthfulness, non-stealing, chastity, and non-receiving - are to be practised by every man, woman, and child; by every soul, irrespective of nation, country, or position.

I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.

When men see how relevant the ten commandments are for economics, they should gain new respect for the importance of the laws of God for all of life, but especially for the life of dominion man, the man redeemed by grace through faith in the one true Dominion Man, Jesus Christ.

Broadly speaking, it is my conclusion that a pretty good guide to most issues of natural law is to look at those areas where you find a consensus in the Judeo-Christian tradition. I think that is roughly, not unerringly, the outline of what I would call natural law.There must be some moral values underlying any civilization; that's my guide.

Truth and right are above utility in all realms of thought and action.

Ethics, as has been well said, are the finest fruits of humanity, but they are not its roots

No man's religion ever survives his morals.

Christianity is the only system of faith which combines religious beliefs with corresponding principles of morality. It builds ethics on religion.