Moral Code

Famous quotes containing the words moral and/or code:

    When the doctrine of allegiance to party can utterly up-end a man’s moral constitution and make a temporary fool of him besides, what excuse are you going to offer for preaching it, teaching it, extending it, perpetuating it? Shall you say, the best good of the country demands allegiance to party? Shall you also say it demands that a man kick his truth and his conscience into the gutter, and become a mouthing lunatic, besides?
    Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)

    Wise Draco comes, deep in the midnight roll
    Of black artillery; he comes, though late;
    In code corroborating Calvin’s creed
    And cynic tyrannies of honest kings;
    He comes, nor parlies; and the Town, redeemed,
    Gives thanks devout; nor, being thankful, heeds
    The grimy slur on the Republic’s faith implied,
    Which holds that Man is naturally good,
    And—more—is Nature’s Roman, never to be
    scourged.
    Herman Melville (1819–1891)