Our morality seems to be only a check on the ultimate domination of force, just as our politeness is a check on the impulse of every pig to put his feet in the trough. – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

It is with flowers, as with moral qualities: the bright-coloured are sometimes poisonous; but, I believe, never the sweet-smelling. – Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers

Morality is a private and costly luxury. – Henry B. Adams, The Education of Henry Adams

The world of empirical morality consists for the most part of nothing but ill will and envy. – Goethe