Moralizing Quotes

“I have been followed by enough police robots to know by now how indestructible they are. You can blow them up or knock them down and they keep coming after you; dragging themselves by one good finger and spouting saccharine morality all the while.”
― Harry Harrison, The Stainless Steel Rat

“Lewis Richardson wrote that his quest to analyze peace with numbers sprang from two prejudices. As a Quaker, he believed that "the moral evil in war outweighs the moral good, although the latter is conspicuous." As a scientist, he thought there was too much moralizing about war and not enough knowledge. "For indignation is so easy and satisfying a mood that it is apt to prevent one from attending to any facts that oppose it. If the reader should object that I have abandoned ethics for the false doctrine that 'tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner' [to understand all is to forgive all], I can reply that it is only a temporary suspense of ethical judgment, made because 'beaucoup condamner c'est peu comprendre' [to condemn much is to understand little]." (p. 200)”
― Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

“Some people would not be practicing some things if they had not preached them.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“With ancient history writers most immediately in view, the author indicates "tendency to look to the virtues and vices of individuals when seeking causes.”
― Peter Heather, The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians