We may pretend that we're basically moral people who make mistakes, but the whole of history proves otherwise.

We may pretend that we're basically moral people who make mistakes, but the whole of history proves otherwise.

Morality without religion is only a kind of dead reckoning,--an
endeavor to find our place on a cloudy sea read more

Morality without religion is only a kind of dead reckoning,--an
endeavor to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the
distance we have run, but without any observation of the heavenly
bodies.

The word morality, if we met it in the Bible, would surprise us
as much as the word telephone read more

The word morality, if we met it in the Bible, would surprise us
as much as the word telephone or motor car.

Obscenity is in the crotch of the beholder.

Obscenity is in the crotch of the beholder.

There is something more horrible than hoodlums, churls and
vipers, and that is knaves with moral justification for their read more

There is something more horrible than hoodlums, churls and
vipers, and that is knaves with moral justification for their
cause.

It is curious - curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare

It is curious - curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare

Morality without religion is only a kind of dead reckoning - an endeavor to find our place on a cloudy read more

Morality without religion is only a kind of dead reckoning - an endeavor to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the distance we have run, but without any observation of the heavenly bodies.

It is difficult to offend a New Yorker.

It is difficult to offend a New Yorker.

What I have absolutely no sympathy with is the legislator, the man who seeks, for his own profit, to exploit read more

What I have absolutely no sympathy with is the legislator, the man who seeks, for his own profit, to exploit the weaknesses of those who are unable to help themselves and then to fasten some moral superscription upon it. This I loathe so much that I cannot conceivably explain how much it is.