Morality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.
Interpretation
Morality is about intrinsic values and principles, while religion often involves following external directives.
This quote by H. L. Mencken highlights the distinction between true morality and the dictates of religion. It suggests that morality is an inherent understanding of what is right, guided by personal conscience, whereas religion may sometimes lead individuals to act according to prescribed beliefs, even when those beliefs conflict with moral principles. Mencken's statement invites critical thinking about the sources of our ethical decisions and the potential conflicts between personal morals and organized religion.
In practice
In a debate about morality and ethics, one might use this quote to illustrate the difference between personal moral judgment and adherence to religious doctrine.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
Biophilia, if it exists, and I believe it exists, is the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms.
The truth was much more beautiful.
In the conduct of our public worship where is the authority of Christ to be found? The truth is that today the Lord rarely controls a service, and the influence He exerts is very small. We sing of Him and preach about Him, but He must not interfere; we worship our way, and it must be right because we have always done it that way, as have the other churches in our group.
How gladly would I meet mortality, my sentence, and be earth in sensible! How glad would lay me down, as in my mother's lap! There I should rest, and sleep secure.
Feminism is the struggle to end sexist oppression. Its aim is not to benefit solely any specific group of women, any particular race or class of women. It does not privilege women over men. It has the power to transform meaningfully all our lives
To call someone 'anti-American', indeed, to be anti-American, is not just racist, it's a failure of the imagination.
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