Foot, Philippa

"Moral progress consists in becoming better at perceiving what is genuinely good."

"A single act of injustice does not make one unjust, just as one swallow does not make spring."

"The moral significance of an action depends partly on the agent's character and history."

"We often rationalize our selfish desires as noble purposes."

"Humility is recognizing both our capacities and our limitations."

"The virtues are unified in the sense that you cannot truly possess one without the others."

"Moral knowledge is practical knowledge—it guides action rather than merely describing reality."

"We inherit many of our moral concepts from tradition, though we must examine them critically."

"The good life is not one of passive pleasure but of active virtue."

"Moral weakness involves knowing what is good yet failing to do it."

"The concepts of virtue and vice make sense only within a framework of human nature."

"True generosity flows from a genuine concern for others, not from self-congratulation."

"Moral understanding requires imagination—the ability to see situations from others' perspectives."

"We should be cautious of moral certainty; humility about our judgments is itself a virtue."

"The virtues are not luxuries for the morally refined but necessities for human life."

"Compassion without justice becomes mere sentimentality."

"A person's character is revealed not in extraordinary circumstances but in daily choices."

"The development of virtue is a lifelong process, not a destination."

"We must attend to the particulars of situations rather than abstracting away all detail."

"Moral disagreements often reflect different understandings of human flourishing."

"The question of how to live well cannot be answered by moral rules alone."

"Courage in one context may be foolhardiness in another; wisdom discerns the difference."

"Our moral intuitions, while not infallible, are often more reliable than our abstract theories."

"The virtuous person has integrated their feelings and their reasoning into a unified character."

"We are apt to overlook our own vices while being quick to condemn them in others."

"Moral improvement requires honest self-examination and willingness to be corrected."

"The concepts of duty and virtue capture different important aspects of morality."

"The virtues are not a luxury but a necessity for human flourishing."

"We cannot understand morality without understanding human nature itself."

"Natural goodness emerges from our capacity to reason about the good life."