You know, doing what is right is easy. The problem is knowing what is right.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Moral action is straightforward once the correct course is identified, but identifying that course involves deep uncertainty.
- In plain terms
- Doing right is easy once you know what it is, but knowing is hard.
- What can you take from it?
- Ethical clarity is often the hardest part of moral action.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do we define right when values conflict?
- What guides moral clarity in complex situations?
Another view
It assumes right and wrong are distinct once identified.
More from Lyndon Johnson
We learned from Hitler at Munich that success only feeds the appetite for aggression.
Permalink to quote #25 You're asking the leader of the Western world a chickenshit question like that?
Permalink to quote #27 We have just lost the South for a generation.
Permalink to quote #24
Related quotes
[Mais par ce que selon le sage Salomon,] Sapience n'entre point en ame malivole, & science sans conscience n'est que ruyne de l'ame.
Francois RabelaisFrancois Rabelais quote #3 I do not, therefore, need any penetrating acuteness to see what I have to do in order that my volition be morally good. Inexperienced in the course of the worl…
Immanuel KantImmanuel Kant quote #16 She dealt with moral problems the way a cleaver deals with meat: and in this case she had made up her mind.
James JoyceJames Joyce quote #30