It appears evident, therefore, that those actions only can truly be called virtuous, and deserving of moral approbation, which the agent believed to be right, and to which he was influenced, more or less, by that belief.
Interpretation
Moral actions are determined by the agent's belief in their righteousness.
This quote by Thomas Reid emphasizes the importance of belief in determining the morality of an action. It suggests that true virtue lies not only in the actions themselves but significantly in the agent's understanding and conviction that those actions are morally right. Therefore, for an action to be deemed virtuous, it must stem from a genuine belief in its righteousness, as mere compliance without conviction lacks moral worth.
In practice
During a philosophy class discussion on ethics.
There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words. To this chiefly it is owing that we find sects and parties in most branches of science [and politics]; and disputes that are carried on from age to age, without being brought to issue.
The laws of nature are the rules according to which the effects are produced; but there must be a cause which operates according to these rules. The laws of navigation never navigated a ship. The rules of architecture never built a house.
Every indication of wisdom, taken from the effect, is equally an indication of power to execute what wisdom planned.
Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is harmony in the house; when there is harmony in the house, there is order in the nation; when there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.
The price paid for intellectual pacification is the sacrifice of the entire moral courage of the human mind.
We all want things we can't have. Being a decent human being is accepting that.
Two loves have made two different cities: self-love hath made a terrestrial city, which rises in contempt of God; and Divine Love hath made a celestial one, which rises in contempt of self. The former glories in itself - the latter in God.
God is within you. You yourself are your creator. If you find that place in yourself from which you brought this thing about, you will be able to live with it and affirm it, perhaps even enjoy it, as your life.
But the saddest difference between them was that Zazetsky, as Luria said, 'fought to regain his lost faculties with the indomitable tenacity of the damned,' whereas Dr P. was not fighting, did not know what was lost. But who was more tragic, or who was more damned -- the man who knew it, or the man who did not?
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