70 Moral Compass Quotes and Sayings to Inspire You

“Homeless shelters, child hunger, and child suffering have become normalized in the richest nation on earth. It’s time to reset our moral compass and redefine how we measure success.” – Marian Wright Edelman

“I don’t think anybody is anybody else’s moral compass. Maybe listening to my music is not the best idea if you live a very constricted life. Or maybe it is.” – Lou Reed

“I could feel my moral compass as a soldier, in danger of – I could feel the squeeze, the pressure of frustration and anger and fear combining on me… I felt the danger; I felt the squeeze of it.” – Tim O’Brien

“You come before me this morning with clean hands and clean collars. I want you to have clean tongues, clean manners, clean morals and clean characters.” – John E. Burns

“Do not be too moral. You might cheat yourself out of much life. Aim high above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Morality’s not practical. Morality’s a gesture. A complicated gesture learned from books.” – Robert Bolt

“Today we are engaged in a deadly global struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms. If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction.” – Barack Obama

“Never let society determine the direction of your moral compass.”

“We need to elect leaders who have a strong moral compass. Leaders who are honest, straightforward, and tough – with a love of justice and fair play.” – Ed O’Neill

“Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.” – W. Clement Stone

“The moral compass was only ever a means to an end and the end is survival of the individuals who use it most creatively.” – Derek Robertson

“Morality which is based on ideas, or on an ideal, is an unmitigated evil.” – D.H. Lawrence

“So I’m just waiting until one party or the other actually gets a moral compass and a backbone.” – John Perry Barlow

“Don’t assume that your personal moral compass, however admirable it may be, will always give you the right answer to complicated questions that require in-depth analysis.” – Joseph Badaracco

“If you have a moral compass, and you stay with it, people will always gravitate towards you.” – Carol Alt

“Democracy needs a moral compass.” – Jill Stein

“My moral compass swings far to the left, but when it comes to gratuitous violence, I have trouble.” – Michael Biehn

“We have become so addicted to our greed-driven habits that we have lost our moral compass and don’t know what is right and wrong.” – Sharon Gannon

“The metaphor of a moral compass is a bit misleading since there is no debate about the possibility of more than one “true north,” whereas there are ongoing debates about whether there might be equally valid moral laws pointing in conflicting directions.” – Elizabeth V. Spelman

“A nation cannot be truly great without a moral compass.” – Marcia Fudge

“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not. – Oprah Winfrey

“The integrity of men is to be measured by their conduct, not by their professions.” – Junius

“The world has lost a visionary leader, a courageous voice for justice, and a clear moral compass. By showing us that the path to freedom and human dignity lies in love, wisdom and compassion for one another, Nelson Mandela stands as an inspiration to us all.” – Kofi Annan

“The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.” – Charles Darwin

“The more cashless our society becomes, the more our moral compass slips.” – Dan Ariely

“Setting sail using different moral compasses causes a relationship to go in circles.” – Khang Kijarro Nguyen

“It’s really fun working on this Marvel movie [ Spiderman]. The essentials of Aunt May are that she’s helped raise Spiderman and she’s his moral compass.” – Marisa Tomei

“You have to follow your moral compass: it’s a good guide of telling you what is right and wrong.” – Cailee Spaeny

“I believe in the teachings of Christ. I think that’s a good way to set your moral compass.” – Margo MacDonald

“The foundation of leadership is your own moral compass. I think the best quality leaders really know where their moral compass is. They get it out when they are making decisions. It’s their guide. But not only do you have to have a moral compass and take it out of your pocket, it has to have a true north.” – ...

... Les Wexner

“Human’s moral compass doesn’t work yet in worlds where the instinct navigates life.” – Toba Beta

“The men can have a moral compass that is just unshakeable, they can have ethics that run to the core.” – Lupe Fiasco

“With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt.” – Zig Ziglar

“There is a minimum requirement of morality, of moral compass, of decency, of moral empathy. And if you are incapable of meeting that minimum requirement, you can’t even talk to me about policy.” – Ana Navarro

“We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but seldom preach.” – Bertrand Russell

“There is no higher value in our society than integrity.” – Arlen Specter

“The biggest challenge, I think, is always maintaining your moral compass.” – Barack Obama

“There’s harmony and inner peace to be found in following a moral compass that points in the same direction regardless of fashion or trend.” – Ted Koppel

“The very idea that we get a moral compass from religion is horrible. Not only should we not get our moral compass from religion, as a matter of fact we don’t.” – Richard Dawkins

“I think we need to be human. Nobody is objective. We need to go in and be human – especially today, especially given everything that’s happening around us, especially given the divides between populations that are growing and what’s at stake in terms of our collective humanity, and the fact that our moral ...

... compass is broken.” – Arwa Damon

“If everyone got a divorce and looked for a second wife, the Coptic family would lose its moral compass. – Pope Shenouda III

“Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect.” – Stephen Covey

“The right moral compass is trying hard to think about what customers want.” – Sundar Pichai

“If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction. I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.”

“In the worst of times the best among us never lose their moral compass, and that is how they emerge relatively unscathed.” – Henry Rollins

“Many of these Americans who are struggling to survive are Americans of color, . Their cries for assistance confront America with a test of our moral compass as a nation.” – Elijah Cummings

“I think if you look at people, whether in business or government, who haven’t had any moral compass, who’ve just changed to say whatever they thought the popular thing was, in the end they’re losers.” – Michael Bloomberg

“If we are to survive, we must have ideas, vision, and courage. These things are rarely produced by committees. Everything that matters in our intellectual and moral life begins with an individual confronting his own mind and conscience in a room by himself.” – Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

“A sense of shame is not a bad moral compass.” – Colin Powell

“Every society rests in the last resort on the recognition of common principles and common ideals, and if it makes no moral or spiritual appeal to the loyalty of its members, it must inevitable fall to pieces.” – Christopher Dawson

“Sometimes, in order to follow our moral compass and/or our hearts, we have to make unpopular decisions or stand up for what we believe in.” – Tabatha Coffey

“I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.” – Ernest Hemingway

“As the pleasure principle is unconstrained by a moral compass based on a respect for others, it is increasingly shaped by the need for intense excitement and a never-ending flood of heightened sensations.” – Henry Giroux

“Sometimes, in order to follow our moral compass and/or our heart, we have to make unpopular decisions or stand up for what we believe in. It can be difficult and even frightening to go against the grain, whether it’s a personal disagreement with a friend, partner, or family member or a professional decision that ...

... affects coworkers and colleagues.” – Tabatha Coffey

“Morality makes you a better human being, and everything is better when you live your life morally.” – Dr. T. P Chia

“My relationship with God is what gives me a moral compass on what decisions to make and that stuff. I’m thankful that I have the people around me that I do, and they remind me each day of who I am and what I stand for.” – Alyson Stoner

“There’s a morality… I think there’s a moral compass but whether that comes from religion or just from being a good person, and where one starts and the other begins… I’m a good person, I hope. But I’m never as good as I want to be, never as nice as I want to be, never as generous as I want to be.” – ...

... David Tennant

“While the Western society gives total freedom to the individuals to do whatever “consenting adults” please, which admittedly is better than having the government poke into your private life and your bedroom, like in Islamic countries, there are no moral compasses to tell what is right from wrong. The very ...

... notion of right and wrong has come under question. The motto is “if it feels good do it”. Hedonism rules!” – Ali Sina

“If people use common sense and their own guiding moral compass, I think they’ll generally stay out of trouble.” – Steve Chabot

“True beauty is not related to what color your hair is or what color your eyes are. True beauty is about who you are as a human being, your principles, your moral compass.” – Ellen DeGeneres

“A compass, I learnt when I was surveying, it’ll point you True North from where you are standing, but it’s got no advice about the swamps and deserts and chasms you’ll encounter along the way.”-Abraham Lincoln

“I’m very, very, very, very spiritual. I grew up in an organized religion, I went to Sunday school as a kid. I’m very grateful that there was religion. I think it instills a good moral compass.” –Taryn Manning

“Much of the world’s moral compass is broken. The moral north reads south and the moral south reads north.” – Dennis Prager

“Without a moral compass the human mind will justify anything.” – Mehrnaz Bassari