Skip to content
quotesby

I am not suggesting that there should be no morality and no self-restraint in regard to sex, any more than in regard to food. In regard to food we have restraints of three kinds, those of law, those of manners, and those of health. We regard it as wrong to steal food, to take more than our share at a common meal, and to eat in ways that are likely to make us ill. Restraints of a similar kind are essential where sex is concerned, but in this case they are much more complex and involve much more self-control. Moreover, since one human being ought not to have property in another, the analogue of stealing is not adultery, but rape, which obviously must be forbidden by law. The questions that arise in regard to health are concerned almost entirely with venereal disease.

Bertrand Russell#109

EthicsMoralityLawHealthSex

About this quote

What does it mean?
Sex, like food, requires legal, social, and health restraints; stealing sex is rape, which must be illegal, while health concerns focus on disease.
In plain terms
Sex needs law, manners, and health rules; rape is theft of a person.
What can you take from it?
Complex self‑control and legal safeguards are essential for sexual behavior.

Where it applies

  • policy making
  • sexual education

Putting it to work

  • create clear consent laws
  • promote safe sex practices

Questions to consider

  • What are the three types of restraint for sex?
  • How can health concerns be balanced with personal freedom?

Another view

The analogy to food may oversimplify sexual ethics.

More from Bertrand Russell

  1. To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

    Permalink to quote #108
  2. Joy of life... depends upon a certain spontaneity in regard to sex. Where sex is repressed, only work remains, and a gospel of work for work's sake never produ…

    Permalink to quote #110
  3. The psychology of adultery has been falsified by conventional morals, which assume, in monogamous countries, that attraction to one person cannot coexist with …

    Permalink to quote #107

Related quotes

  1. [An attorney] can find it consistent with his dignity to turn wrong into right, and right into wrong, to abet a lie, nay to create, disseminate, and with all t…

    Anthony TrollopeAnthony Trollope quote #1
  2. Monsters remain human beings. In fact, to reduce them to a subhuman level is to exonerate them of their acts of terrorism and mass murder - just as animals are…

    Andrew SullivanAndrew Sullivan quote #1
  3. 'There are two sides to reconciliation; the law aspect and the moral values. Unless there is improvement for both, changes will not come by easily.' (15 May 20…

    Taito WaradiTaito Waradi quote #1