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The function of punishment is to do good, to improve the universe, to add to the sum total of happiness. And punishment which does not do this is not justified. It is a crime in itself. The penal acts of society should be judged just as other acts of conduct are judged—by their utilities.

— J. Howard Moore The New Ethics (1907)

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More quotes by J. Howard Moore

Each being is an integer in the stupendous scheme of consciousness.

Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis (1899)

Imitation will not always be stronger than reason, but it is today.

Savage Survivals (1916)

Inconsideration by human beings toward the rest of sentients is an aspect of that vast unconsciousness which taught that blacks were made for whites, females for males, and barbarians" for Romans.

Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis (1899)

Act toward others as you would act toward a part of your own self.

The Universal Kinship (1906)

Vacation days may be much more beautifully spent communing with the transcendent spirit of Nature than in the butchery and terrorisation of her simple-hearted children.

The New Ethics (1907)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: J. Howard Moore (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.