Quotes about Morality

One of the first things that strikes us about the men and women in Scripture is that they were disappointingly non- heroic. We do not find splendid moral examples. We do not find impeccably virtuous models. That always comes as a shock to newcomers to Scripture: Abraham lied; Jacob cheated; Moses murdered and complained; David committed adultery; Peter blasphemed.

That is Jeremiah's accusation: "You have found a safe place, haven't you! This nice, clean temple. You spend all week out in the world doing what you want to do, taking advantage of others, exploiting the weak, cursing the person who isn't pliable to your plans, and then you repair to this place where everything is in order and protected and right.

The temptations that use the raw material of good for evil can continue unrecognized for a long time without awareness.

What is described in Scripture as the basic sin, the sin of taking things into your own hands, being your own god, grabbing what is there while you can get it, is now described as basic wisdom: improve yourself by whatever means you are able; get ahead regardless of the price, take care of me first.

It is wicked to tell a person a lie about God because, if we come to believe the wrong things about God, we will think the wrong things about ourselves, and we will live meanly or badly.

Oh! Can you believe it? The chaste city has become a whore! She was once all justice, everyone living as good neighbors, And now they're all at one another's throats. Your coins are all counterfeits. Your wine is watered down. Your leaders are turncoats who keep company with crooks. They sell themselves to the highest bidder and grab anything not nailed down. They never stand up for the homeless, never stick up for the defenseless.

The mouth of a good person is a deep, life-giving well, but the mouth of the wicked is a dark cave of abuse.

I would prefer as friend a good man ignorant than one more clever who is evil too.

When good men die their goodness does not perish,But lives though they are gone. As for the bad,All that was theirs dies and is buried with them.

Silver and gold are not the only coin virtue too passes current all over the world.

Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.

Of all evils, indeed, famine is the worst, and it destroys nothing so effectively as shame. For that which under other circumstances is worthy of respect, in the midst of famine is despised. Thus women snatched the food from the very mouths of their husbands and children, from their fathers, and what was most pitiable of all, mothers from their babes. And while their dearest ones were wasting away in their arms, they were not ashamed to take away from them the last drops that supported life.