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
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I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read
The emotional reaction in the peak experience has a special flavor of wonder, of awe, of reverence, of humility and surrender before the experience as before something great.
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The lowest and vilest alleys of London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.
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From birth to death you go on living, groping in darkness with no light - and you could have created the light. You cannot find it in the scriptures; nobody can hand it to you. It is not purchased or sold; it is nontransferable. But you can create it - you can put all your energies together. You can start living consciously from this very moment.
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The gods confound the man who first found out How to distinguish hours! Confound him, too, Who in this place set up a sun-dial, To cut and hack my days so wretchedly Into small portions.
PlautusRead
Nothing appears more surprising to those, who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission, with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers.
David HumeRead