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.
No form of liberty is worth a darn [sic] which doesn't give us the right to do wrong now and then.
Where there is no imagination there is no horror.
The war-function has grasped us so far; but the constructive interests may some day seem no less imperative, and impose on the individual a hardly lighter burden.
I spit into the face of time that has transfigured me
It all goes back and back," Tyrion thought, "to our mothers and fathers and theirs before them. We are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us, and one day our own children will take up our strings and dance in our steads.
We must reckon with the possibility that something in the nature of the sexual instinct itself is unfavorable to the realization of complete satisfaction.
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