* “Ethical religion can be real only to those who are engaged in ceaseless efforts at moral improvement. By moving upward we acquire faith in an upward movement, without limit.”
-- Felix Adler

* The truth which has made us free will in the end make us glad also. Every outcry against the oppression of some people by other people, or against what is morally hideous is the affirmation of the principle that a human being as such is not to be violated. A human being is not to be handled as a tool but is to be respected and revered.”
-- Felix Adler

* "The doctrine that might makes right has covered the earth with misery. While it crushes the weak, it also destroys the strong. Every deceit, every cruelty, every wrong, reaches back sooner or later and crushes its author. Justice is moral health, bringing happiness, wrong is moral disease, bringing mortal death."
-- John Peter Altgeld

We are committed with our lives to building a different model and a different future for humanity, the Earth, and other species. We have envisaged a moral alternative to economic globalization and we will not rest until we see it realized.
-- Maude Barlow

* "The power of a movement lies in the fact that it can indeed change the habits of people. This change is not the result of force but of dedication, of moral persuasion. "
-- Stephen Biko

* The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

* …the first essential component of social justice is adequate food for all mankind. Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world.
-- Norman Borlaug

* To assert that it is possible to establish peace between men of different nations is simply to assert that man, whatever his ethnical background, his race, religious beliefs, or philosophy, is capable of reason. Two forces within the individual contribute to the development of his conscience and of his morality: reason and sensitivity.
-- Léon Bourgeois

Scientists, therefore, are responsible for their research, not only intellectually but also morally. This responsibility has become an important issue in many of today's sciences, but especially so in physics, in which the results of quantum mechanics and relativity theory have opened up two very different paths for physicists to pursue. They may lead us - to put it in extreme terms - to the Buddha or to the Bomb, and it is up to each of us to decide which path to take.
-- Fritjof Capra

* I think there are a lot of strong leaders around the world who have made very convincing arguments about the weakness of corporate-led globalization and the compelling nature of alternatives. A huge part of our power came from our moral authority ... the moral issue of debts as being killers of millions of poor people around the world...I think our power is also rooted in our intellectual power. I think there are a lot of strong leaders around the world who have made very convincing arguments about the weakness of corporate-led globalization and the compelling nature of alternatives.
-- John Cavanagh

* Yes, I am my brother's keeper. I am under a moral obligation to him that is inspired, not by any maudlin sentimentality but by the higher duty I owe myself. What would you think me if I were capable of seating myself at a table and gorging myself with food and saw about me the children of my fellow beings starving to death.
-- Eugene V. Debs

Thus if the First Amendment means anything in this field, it must allow protests even against the moral code that the standard of the day sets for the community. In other words, literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor. -- William O. Douglas
-- Justice William O. Douglas

* We have been led to believe that we have come a long way toward world nuclear disarmament. But that is not the case. Our government is not doing all that it could. We must urge our leaders to fulfill the obligations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The United States must assume world leadership to end once and for all the threat of nuclear war. It is our moral responsibility.
~ Harrison Ford

* "If only we can overcome cruelty, to human and animal, with love and compassion we shall stand at the threshold of a new era in human moral and spiritual evolution - and realize, at last, our most unique quality: humanity."
~ Jane Goodall

* Nuclear weapons have forced us to consider whether we will be the last generation. They challenge the moral dimension of our humanity. Our technological abilities must not outstrip our moral insights, rendering us less than fully human. For in this age, acting without reliance on the gifts of law, morality and wisdom will be lethal. What right do we have to place all life on the planet at risk in the service of a human construction, the state, when it is presently legally required and within our political means to globally eliminate all nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons elimination will make all states and their people safer. It is time to assert our right to live in a nuclear weapons free world.
-- Jonathan Granoff

Tolerance, a term which we sometimes use in place of the words respect, mercy, generosity, or forbearance, is the most essential element of moral systems; it is a very important source of spiritual discipline and a celestial virtue of perfected people.
-- M. Fethullah Gülen

* It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.
-- Hubert Humphrey

* In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.
~ Thomas Jefferson

I never did, or countenanced, in public life, a single act inconsistent with the strictest good faith; having never believed there was one code of morality for a public, and another for a private man.
~ Thomas Jefferson

"A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society."
-- Thomas Jefferson

I look forward to a great future for America - a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose. -- John F. Kennedy

I would always encourage people of any age not to be so quick to follow other people's truths but to search and follow your own moral code and live by your own integrity, and mostly just be brave.
-- Jewel Kilcher

"I criticize America because I love her. I want her to stand as a moral example to the world." -- Martin Luther King, Jr

“I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.” -- Martin Luther King, Jr

Nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

[nonviolence] seeks to secure moral ends through moral means. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

* "Why wouldn't I help? What good reason do I have as a human being with power and a sense of empathy and morality, why wouldn't I do something?"
-- John Legend

"Ultimately, one of the best ways to take care of our souls is to build a society that supports rather than undermines our highest moral and spiritual intuitions and inclinations. Yet, building that society can never be divided from the daily practices through which we live out our ethical and spiritual lives, both in the way we treat others around us, and in the way we nourish the God within us."
-- Rabbi Michael Lerner

* "... plain, old, simple kindness: to other people, to your family. Love for other people. I think that’s another very important part of morality, being genuinely compassionate and concerned about the feelings and well being of other people, especially those that depend on you directly."
-- George McGovern

* "As believers we all have an opportunity and moral obligation to recognize our spiritual common ground; to rise above our differences; to combat prejudice and intolerance."
-- Queen Noor of Jordan

* There is an ancient Indian saying: "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children." If we use this ethic as a moral compass, then our rendezvous with reality can also become a rendezvous with opportunity.
~ Patricia Schroeder

Moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous to this country as irresponsible talk. The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character.
-- Margaret Chase Smith

* The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character. -- Margaret Chase Smith

* The Earth Charter is important as an expression of the commitment of people throughout the Earth to evoke their own deepest moral, spiritual and ethical principles in the task of ensuring a sustainable future for those who inhabit the Earth now and those who will follow us on the Earth.
-- Maurice Strong

"Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something."
-- Henry David Thoreau

* It is absolutely sure that if globalization is not founded on moral values not only will fail but will bring about global calamities.
-- George Vithoulkas

We respect the dignity and the rights of every man and every nation. The path to a brighter future of the world leads through honest reconciliation of the conflicting interests and not through hatred and bloodshed. To follow that path means to enhance the moral power of the all-embracing idea of human solidarity.
-- Lech Walesa

* There's a moral convergence happening among religious leaders on the issue of poverty"
-- Rev. Jim Wallis

"A new educational system in which all children born shall have the same advantage of physical, industrial, mental and moral culture, and thus be equally prepared at maturity to enter upon active, responsible and useful lives. . . . In so doing, it strikes a fatal blow at . . . the most demoralizing of all monopolies. . . educational superiority."
-- Victoria Woodhull