"For an act to be moral the..." - Quote by Arthur Schopenhauer
For an act to be moral the intention must be based on compassion, not duty. We do something because we want to do it, because we feel we have to do it, not because we ought to do it. And even if our efforts fail - or we never even get to implement them - we are still moral because our motivation was based on compassion.
More by Arthur Schopenhauer
More on Morality
“Murder is always a mistake. One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner.”
“All through my boyhood I had a profound conviction that I was no good, that I was wasting my time, wrecking my talents, behaving with monstrous folly and wickedness and ingratitude-and all this, it seemed, was inescapable, because I lived among laws which were absolute, like the law of gravity, but which it was not possible for me to keep.”
“Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.”
More on Compassion
“The more time we spend considering the shortcomings of others, the smaller a person we become.”
“If it were (Is it not) outrageous that society should treat with such rigid precision those of its members who were most poorly endowed in the distribution or wealth that chance had made, and who were, therefore, most worthy of indulgence.”
“Have a little compassion on my nerves. You tear them to pieces.”