Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
We are shocked by life's brutality, yet without shared morality we act in ways that seem barbaric by humane standards and tactless by society's dubious values.
In plain terms
Lack of common morals leads to harsh, tactless actions.
What can you take from it?
Shared moral frameworks are needed to avoid barbaric behavior.

Where it applies

  • moral dilemmas
  • social conflict

Putting it to work

  • establish common ethical guidelines

Questions to consider

  • How can societies create binding moral standards?
  • What makes an action barbaric?

Another view

It assumes a single objective morality which may not exist.

More from Theodor Adorno

  1. 'Up to our days a man's membership of the upper or lower classes has been crudely determined by whether or not he accepted money. At times false pride became c…

    Permalink to quote #128
  2. 'What has become alien to men is the human component of culture, its closest part, which upholds them against the world. They make common cause with the world …

    Permalink to quote #130
  3. 'Truth is inseperable from the illusory belief that from the figures of the unreal one day, in spite of all, real deliverance will come.'

    Permalink to quote #127

Related quotes

  1. Aloof with hermit-eye I scan The present works of present man - A wild and dreamlike trade of blood and guile, Too foolish for a tear, too wicked for a smile!

    Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor Coleridge quote #11
  2. If one purges the Judaism of the Prophets and Christianity as Jesus Christ taught it of all subsequent additions, especially those of the priests, one is left …

    Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein quote #146
  3. 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