Moral Legitimacy Quotes

The Bible nowhere prohibits war. In the Old Testament we find war and even conquest positively commanded, and although war was raging in the time of Christ and His apostles, still they said not a word of its unlawfulness and immorality.

Altho that is so, Ireland has always denied and Ireland still denies that the Union was binding upon her either legally or morally. And here on this historic occasion we have assembled to renew our protest and to place it upon record.

The killing of a criminal can be moral, but never its legitimation.

Why our elected leaders continue to believe that such genocidal weapons are legitimate and moral in our hands but illegitimate and immoral in the hands of our enemies…

Legitimacy, when challenged, bases itself on an appeal to the past, while justification relates to an end that lies in the future. Violence can be justifiable, but it never will be legitimate.

Cruelty...prefers abstraction. Some have tried to resolved this gap by hunting or butchering an animal themselves, as if those experiences might somehow legitimize the endeavor of eating animals. This is very silly. Murdering someone would surely prove that you are capable of killing, but it woudln't be the most reasonable way to understand why you should or shouldn't do it.

A just system must generate its own support.

The lack of alternatives to an illegal action does not legitimise that action.

Lose moral legitimacy, lose the war.

The right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures, both by precept and example.

A defensible and durable civilization can only sustain itself legitimately and effectively if it recognizes the inherent dignity of every member of the human family

While the West has enjoyed overwhelming global power, its moral preachings have been legitimised, and in effect enforced, by that power. But as that power begins to ebb, then the morality of its actions will be the subject of growing scrutiny and challenge.

A distribution is just if it arises from another just distribution by legitimate means.

I think then I may safely conclude and I firmly believe that American slavery is not only not a sin but especially commanded by God through Moses and approved by Christ through His Apostles.

We [americans] have earned the moral authority, at least compared to anybody else in the world.

Legitimate authority to be, to do or to have; as the right to be a king, the right to do one's neighbor, the right to have measles, and the like.

Yes, I support the death penalty. It is an issue that cannot be fudged or hedged.

The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action.

The fact that a crime might have been committed with impunity in the past may make it seem more familiar and less gruesome, but surely does not give it any greater legitimacy.

The Supreme Court's only armor is the cloak of public trust; its sole ammunition, the collective hopes of our society.

Whatever one thinks of the justifiability of drone attacks, it's one of the least 'brave' or courageous modes of warfare ever invented. It's one thing to call it just, but to pretend it's 'brave' is Orwellian in the extreme.

All systems of morality are based on the idea that an action has consequences that legitimize or cancel it. A mind imbued with the absurd merely judges that those consequences must be considered calmly.

Revolutions and bolts [from the party] are alike. They are sacred when the facts justify them. When not so justified they are blunders of the sort that is worse than crime.

The general will is always right.

While moral rules may be propounded by authority the fact that these were so propounded would not validate them.