Alexis Carrel Quotes

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

The power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all.

While early childhood experiences may impel, they do not compel. In the end, evil is a matter of choice.

How can an act done under compulsion have any moral element in it, seeing that what is moral is the free act of an intelligent being?

We tend to think that people are more to blame for their acts than for their omissions.

No intelligent man believes that anybody ever willingly errs or willingly does base and evil deeds; they are well aware that all who do base and evil things do them unwillingly.

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.

There is no right in acting.

To deny the freedom of the will is to make morality impossible.

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.

Belief is a moral act for which the believer is to be held responsible.

What is done cannot be effaced. We have to act upon a moral field prepared for us ...

The more...we consider man to be free, the less we can say, that he can neglect to use reason, or choose evil in preference to good

There is nothing in the whole frame of man which seems to me so unaccountable as that thing called conscience.

...guilt leads to righteous action, but rarely is it the right action.

If everyone is to be made responsible for everything they do, you must extend responsibility beyond the level of conscious intention.

Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does.

Fear is the mother of morality.

The idea of determinism combined with complete human responsibility struck me as very hard to reconcile with an idea of justice, let alone mercy.

The act of willing this or that, of choosing among various courses of conduct, is central in the realm of ethics.

We are responsible for actions performed in response to circumstances for which we are not responsible.

Relationships do not preclude issues of morality.

I believe firmly that in making ethical decisions, man has the prerogative of true freedom of choice.

The blame is his who chooses: God is blameless.

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