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About this quote

What does it mean?
Shaw claims that equating sexual exclusivity with moral worth has harmed human ethics more than most other errors.
In plain terms
Linking monogamy to being a good person has confused our sense of right and wrong.
What can you take from it?
Separate relationship structures from moral value.

Where it applies

  • relationship counseling
  • ethical debates

Putting it to work

  • question moral assumptions about relationships
  • evaluate actions by harm rather than form

Questions to consider

  • What defines a moral person?
  • How do social norms shape your conscience?

Another view

Views on morality vary widely across cultures.

More from George Bernard Shaw

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  3. Law is blind without counsel. The counsel men agree with is vain: it is only the echo of their own voices. A million echoes will not help you to rule righteous…

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