Umberto Eco Quotes

The issues of the choice between right and wrong has to be an ongoing concern for everybody, at every age. There is no magical point in a human life when anyone is or becomes immune to the second-by-second choice to do right instead of wrong.

To be moral involves taking a position towards that matrix, thinking critically about what is taken for granted.

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

At around nine or 10 years of age, young people start to decide for themselves what's moral or not, and that's why I like writing for that age group so much.

I would like us to think about it more explicitly, and not take our intuitions as the given of ethics, but rather to reflect on it, and be more open about the fact that something is an ethical issues and think what we ought to do about it.

Many people weigh the guilt, they will feel against the pleasure of the forbidden action they want to take.

The only things that separates us from the brute, with which we have so much in common, is the capacity to distinguish between right and wrong.

If the ability to tell right from wrong should have anything to do with the ability to think, then we must be able to 'demand' its exercise in every sane person no matter how erudite or ignorant.

People need to be educated so that they can make intelligent moral choices

I'm a very good decision maker because I have core set of principles and so I can make decisions. Decisions can be very hard and you have to wrestle with them, but I'm able to get all the data on the table and figure out what would be the best decision because decisions mean ill for some people and mean positives for others.

The cause of all human evils is the not being able to apply general principles to special cases.

Conscience is the reason employed about questions of right and wrong.

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

Nowhere is wisdom more necessary than in the guidance of charitable impulses. Meaning well is only half our duty; Thinking right is the other, and equally important, half.

You got to wrestle with your conscience. You got to listen to people. It doesn't come so easy to me that this is right and that's wrong. It's never that simple.

All decision-making is a values-clarifying exercise.

It is the responsibility of every human to know their actions and the consequences of their actions and to ask questions and to question things when they are wrong.

The nature of morality must be considered, and preferably before one is exposed to situations where a moral decision is required.

Compassion without wisdom is dangerous. It's what enables people to support the 'underdog,' even if the underdog is evil

When personal judgment is inoperative (or forbidden), men's first concern is not how to choose, but how to justify their choice

The only kind of trouble I've ever been in is when I was stealing eggs when I was little. I think I know right from wrong.

You can't legislate intelligence and common sense into people.

Wisdom and knowledge can best be understood together. Knowledge is learning, the power of the mind to understand and describe the universe. Wisdom is knowing how to apply knowledge and how not to apply it. Knowledge is knowing what to say; wisdom is knowing whether or not to say it. Knowledge gives answers; wisdom asks questions. Knowledge can be taught, wisdom grows from experience.

We must make a decision of values.

The establishment uses that rationale all the time, and that's why we do what we do. But leadership requires some understanding that you can say no. People have base instincts, but the transcendent also appeal to them.