Denis Diderot Quotes

Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 % of them are wrong.

Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any methods.

There is nothing politically right that is morally wrong.

Every judgement of conscience, be it right or wrong, be it about things evil in themselves or morally indifferent, is obligatory, in such wise that he who acts against his conscience always sins.

Conscience has no more to do with gallantry than it has with politics.

Virtue cannot separate itself from reality without becoming a principle of evil.

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.

It may not have the virtuous ring of the golden rule, but the maxim 'never say never' is one of the most important in ethics.

There is no right in acting.

There is but one right, and the possibilities of wrong are infinite.

That which is morally wrong will never be politically right.

What most men call their conscience is imaginary virtue switching left or right according to self-interest.

I don't believe so much in good and evil.

Morality must relate, at some level, to the well-being of conscious creatures. If there are more and less effective ways for us to seek happiness and to avoid misery in this world - and there clearly are - then there are right and wrong answers to questions of morality.

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.

People talk about the conscience, but it seems to me one must just bring it up to a certain point and leave it there. You can let your conscience alone if you're nice to the second housemaid.

There is really no right and wrong. I recognize no right and wrong.

In ethics, there is a humility; moralists are usually righteous.

I don't want to have to compromise my morals in order to make a living.

Many a man renounces morals, but with great difficulty the conception, 'morality.' Morality is the 'idea' of morals, their intellectual power, their power over the conscience; on the other hand, morals are too material to rule the mind, and do not fetter an 'intellectual' man, a so-called independent, a 'freethinker.'

You can't do something that is morally vacuous or dysfunctional and then write it off saying, 'It wasn't my film, I was just doing a job in it.'

Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.

In this life, it's not hard to do wrong.

The struggle for morality never stays won. It's always in process.

A book must have moral purpose to be any good. Why, I don't know.