Our Centers for Ethics:

Quotations: Sanctimony, cynicism, anger

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Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.
— Jesus (from the Bible, John 8:7)

Hatred is blind, anger is foolhardy, and he who pours out vengeance risks having to drink a bitter draft.
— Alexandre Dumas, French novelist and playwright (1802-1870), from The Count of Monte-Cristo, 1844

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life.
— Henry David Thoreau, American author and philosopher (1817-1862)

Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral, forty-eight percent indignation, and fifty percent envy.
— Vittorio De Sica, Italian filmmaker (1902-1974)

A knave’s religion is always the rottenest thing about him.
— John Ruskin, British critic and author (1819-1900)

Anger is never without a reason, but seldom a good one.
— Benjamin Franklin, American Founding Father, inventor and statesman (1706-1790)

Anyone can become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way – this is not easy.
— Aristotle, Greek philosopher (384-322 B.C.), from the Nicomachean Ethics

When a man is wrong and wont admit it, he always gets angry.
— Thomas Haliburton, Canadian writer (1796-1865)

All seems infected that the infected spy, as all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye.
— Alexander Pope, English poet (1688-1744)

You can tell the size of a man by the size of the thing that makes him mad.
— Adlai Stevenson II, American politician, presidential candidate (1900-1965)

Envy someone an' it pulls you down. Admire them and it builds you up. Which makes more sense?
— Elvis Presley, American rock 'n' roll icon (1935-1977)

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
— Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), American humorist, author and journalist (1835-1910)

There are two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.
— Indira Gandhi, Indian prime minister (1917-1984)

I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.
— Booker T. Washington, American educator (1856-1915)

Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.
— Helen Keller, American social activist, public speaker and author (1880-1968)

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