Virtue is something you have to get good at, like playing the trombone or tolerating bores at parties. Being a virtuous human being takes practice; and those who are brilliant at being human (what Christians call the saints) are the virtuosi of the moral sphere - the Pavarottis and Maradonas of virtue.
The giving of the Torah is a story of God seeking to provide humanity with the opportunity to make moral decisions.
Anything that makes it easier to imagine trading places with someone else increases your moral consideration for that other person.
Force cannot transmit a moral principle: moral ideas can be received only through the reason of the heart.
Physical bravery is an animal instinct; moral bravery is much higher and truer courage.
If Trump's talking to Putin can help end the bloodshed in Ukraine or Syria, it would appear to be at least as ethical an act as pulpiteering about our moral superiority on the Sunday talk shows.
What is indisputable is the fact that unbelief is the force that gives birth to all of our bad behavior and every moral failure. It is the root.
Europe is dying. That is one of the unsayable truths of our time. We are undergoing the moral equivalent of climate change and no one is talking about it.
Unquestionably, it is the duty of every master to watch over the religious and moral culture of his slaves, and to give them every comfort and privilege that is not incompatible with the continued existence of the relations between them.
I can tell you all kinds of moral tales, but fashion and reality are vaguely different.
The sheer number of legendary narratives and historically verifiable incidents invites us to revise assumptions about the origins of biological and chemical warfare and its moral and technological constraints.
The moral of the story is not to listen to those who tell you not to play the violin but stick to the tambourine.
Morality is only moral when it is voluntary.
I think it's a really admirable thing to be very sure of your own moral code and not waver from that.
I'm a weirdo, but I have a very strong moral code.