[There is] an increasing tendency among modern men to imagine themselves ethical because they have delegated their vices to larger and larger groups.

For democracy is a method of finding proximate solutions for insoluble problems.

Self-righteousness is the inevitable fruit of simple moral judgments.

It is my strong conviction that a realist conception of human nature should be made a servant of an ethic of progressive justice and should not be made into a bastion of conservatism, particularly a conservatism which defends unjust privileges.

We take, and must continue to take, morally hazardous actions to preserve our civilization. We must exercise our power. But we ought neither to believe that a nation is capable of perfect disinterestedness in its exercise, nor become complacent about a particular degree of interest and passion which corrupt the justice by which the exercise of power is legitimatized.

Reason is not the sole basis of moral virtue in man. His social impulses are more deeply rooted than his rational life.

The old prose writers wrote as if they were speaking to an audience; while, among us, prose is invariably written for the eye alone.