Obscenity is a moral concept in the verbal arsenal of the establishment, which abuses the term by applying it, not to expressions of its own morality but to those of another.
quote by Herbert Marcuse
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
In a constitutional democracy the moral content of law must be given by the morality of the framer or legislator, never by the morality of the judge.
quote by Robert Bork
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Moral Rights
‘The moral rights of the author
have been asserted’… that, I’m told,
is what I should say when I write
anything for publication here; even before
I say anything..
It means, I guess, the more, the less..
than ‘Copyright’ which normally
gets printed just above it;
which just means, don’t copy this;
whereas ‘moral rights’ convey
so much more…
suggesting that I even possess morality;
which, considering my wild, undisciplined
former life, you might well question..
but note, I merely ‘assert’ them;
feel free to challenge them (you note that ‘rights’
are plural; plenty lawyer’s fees there
to say, well maybe this, not that…
and you’re free (your defending counsel may assert)
to copy my poem and put your own name to it;
since truth can be in no man’s sole possession,
and my poem, bless its metered tropes,
speaks naught but the truth..
though now I mention ‘truth’, I don’t recall
that phrase about the moral rights
upon the title-page of, let’s say,
the Gospels; Books of Moses; Qu’ran; Upanishads;
those guys on whom we’ve so long depended
to tell us what morality should be..
so please understand, that when I ‘assert’,
it’s more for my self-image than for yours;
makes me feel good; I must be
a serious author, if (in the subtext, scholars footnote)
the moral underpinning may be detected..
and that said – now to the poem.. Except
now I’ve forgotten what I was going to say..
Perhaps that, too, is a moral issue; but
I have the right to remain silent..
even if I’m up on this morality charge..
my defence is, that my Muse,
hearing the word ‘morality’,
flees my company. ’Twas ever so.
poem by Michael Shepherd
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The essential function of art is moral. But a passionate, implicit morality, not didactic. A morality which changes the blood, rather than the mind.
quote by David Herbert Lawrence
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Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term.
quote by Carl Sagan
Submitted by Catalin Popescu
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Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. There may be legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not... with regard to abortion and euthanasia.
quote by Pope Benedict XVI
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It is obvious that 'obscenity' is not a term capable of exact legal definition in the practice of the Courts, it means 'anything that shocks the magistrate.'
quote by Bertrand Russell
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No arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.
quote by Ronald Reagan
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Property is not the sacred right. When a rich man becomes poor it is a misfortune, it is not a moral evil. When a poor man becomes destitute, it is a moral evil, teeming with consequences and injurious to society and morality.
quote by Lord Acton
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Those who cherish their freedom and recognize and respect the equal right of their neighbors to be free and live in peace must work together for the triumph of law and moral principles in order that
peace, justice, and confidence may prevail in the world. There must be a return to a belief in the pledged word, in the value of a signed treaty. There must be recognition of the fact that national morality is as vital as private morality.
quote by Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Morality is only moral when it is voluntary.
quote by Lincoln Steffens
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The Establishment center ... has led us into the stupidest and cruelest war in all history. That war is a moral and political disaster -- a terrible cancer eating away at the soul of our nation.
quote by George McGovern
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The Establishment center... has led us into the stupidest and cruelest war in all history. That war is a moral and political disaster - a terrible cancer eating away at the soul of our nation.
quote by George McGovern
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Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.
quote by Ronald Reagan
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Obscenity
Obscenity is not in the pictures.
Nor is it in the writings and speeches.
Obscenity lies in the perceiver's mind.
The mind is culture bound, forum bound.
23.01.2012
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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In its original literal sense, "moral relativism" is simply moral complexity. That is, anyone who agrees that stealing a loaf of bread to feed one's children is not the moral equivalent of, say, shoplifting a
dress for the fun of it, is a relativist of sorts. But in recent years, conservatives bent on reinstating an essentially religious vocabulary of absolute good and evil as the only legitimate framework for discussing social values have redefined "relative" as "arbitrary." That conflation has been reinforced by social theorists and advocates of identity politics who argue that there is no universal morality, only the value systems of particular cultures and power structures.
quote by Ellen Willis
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Law is vulnerable to the winds of intellectual or moral fashion, which it then validates as the commands of our most basic concept.
quote by Robert Bork
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Do you not see, first, that - as a mental abstract - physical force is directly opposed to morality; and secondly, that it practically drives out of existence the moral forces?
quote by Auberon Herbert
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Used and Abused
I feel like nobody cares
Nobody wants me around
Nobody likes me
They all just hate me
But then I think about it
And it's only you
You are the one that doesn't care
You are the one that abuses me
Abuses my niceness
And my good nature
No more
No more will you abuse me
I'm done with you
You and your abusiveness
I'm sick of it all
I'm sick of being used and abused
poem by Brandon Park
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The law is constantly based on notions of morality, and if all laws representing essentially moral choices are to be invalidated under the due process clause, the courts will be very busy indeed.
quote by Byron White
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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For children to take morality seriously they must be in the presence of adults who take morality seriously. And with their own eyes they must see adults take morality seriously.
quote by William Bennett
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