Samuel Butler, writer

Morality is the custom of one's country and the current feeling of one's peers. Cannibalism is moral in a cannibal country. -Samuel Butler, writer (1835-1902)

One can use the words this way, but then one must insist that some "moralities" are false, such as a morality that considers cannibalism as good.

Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

We are all of us more or less echoes, repeating involuntarily the virtues, the defects, the movements, and the characters of those among whom we live. -Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

I think that this is true, more or less, and it underscores the importance of our daily associations.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

Such navel-gazing may bring "the suffrage of the world," but that would merely reveal the sad state of the world. Fortunately, the world isn't as bad off as it might be. After all, the world condemned Hitler, though I am sure he absolved himself to the very end.

J. K. Rowling, author

"Anything's possible if you've got enough nerve." --J. K. Rowling

This sounds good – very positive – but it simply isn't true. An abundance of nerve may lead one to try things that a more timid person wouldn't try, but just trying isn't the same as succeeding.

John Updike

The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else. -John Updike, writer (1932-2009)

In a moral sense, I think that some artists have destroyed by what they have created. At least, what some creators have considered their art has been evil, which is the destruction of something.

Richard Feynman

"I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy." -- Richard Feynman

That's a refreshing admission, and considering the source, pretty weighty.