All historical experience demonstrates the following: Our earth cannot be changed unless in the not too distant future an alteration in the consciousness of individuals is achieved.
Hans KungRead
However, if the religions in essence merely repeat statements from the United Nations Human Rights Declaration, such a Declaration becomes superfluous; an ethic is more than rights.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True ethics go beyond mere rights and laws as stated by human rights documents.
Hans Kung emphasizes that ethics should encompass deeper moral values that transcend the basic rights outlined in legal documents like the United Nations Human Rights Declaration. He argues that religions and ethical teachings must provide a richer moral framework rather than just repeating the rights and entitlements that have been codified in human rights declarations, suggesting that ethics involve a richer and more comprehensive understanding of human dignity and morality.
Themes
EthicsHuman RightsMoralityReligionValues
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on moral philosophy, you might use this quote to illustrate the depth of ethical discussions beyond legal frameworks.
More from Hans Kung
All quotes βTime and again we see leaders and members of religions incite aggression, fanaticism, hate, and xenophobia - even inspire and legitimate violent and bloody conflicts.
Hans KungRead
But I have to add - and this answers your other question - this catholicity in time and in space is only meaningful for me if there is, at the same time, a concentration on the Gospel.
Hans KungRead
We are conscious that religions cannot solve the economic, political and social problems of this earth.
Hans KungRead
At the same time we are aware that our various religions and ethical traditions often offer very different bases for what is helpful and what is unhelpful for men and women, what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil.
Hans KungRead
In the last resort, a love of God without love of humanity is no love at all.
Hans KungRead
Similar quotes
I fear uniformity. You cannot manufacture great men any more than you can manufacture gold.
John RuskinRead
An independent Ireland would see its own independence in jeopardy the moment it saw the independence of Britain seriously threatened. Mutual self-interest would make the peoples of these two islands, if both independent, the closest possible allies in a moment of real national danger to either.
Eamon De ValeraRead
Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him. It is the moment when his emotions achieve their most powerful sway over him, and afterward when you say to this person "the world today" or "life" or "reality" he will assume that you mean this moment, even if it is fifty years past. The world, through his unleashed emotions, imprinted itself upon him, and he carries the stamp of that passing moment forever.
John KnowlesRead
Maybe we ought to consider a Golden Rule in foreign policy: Don't do to other nations what we don't want happening to us. We endlessly bomb these countries and then we wonder why they get upset with us?
Ron PaulRead
But an old age serene and bright, and lovely as a Lapland night, shall lead thee to thy grave.
William WordsworthRead
Moral habits, induced by public practices, are far quicker in making their way into men's private lives, than the failings and faults of individuals are in infecting the city at large.
PlutarchRead