"Negative judgments--in particular expressions of abhorrence at wrong--are at the heart of moral discourse." [Elizabeth H. Wolgast, The Grammar of Justice 195 (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1987)]

"An experienced and worldly person might . . . say, quite wisely, that it will not do to talk so much about vice, because it makes one hate men. We become misanthropic if we contemplate dishonesty, infidelity, and cruelty, especially, for too long a time. Better, perhaps, to change the topic. Who, after all, can bear the nag and the scold? More seriously, it is undeniable that misanthropy has the most destructive political possibilities. To hate men as they are enough to do anything for the sake of a new and improved humanity; to clean up the human race until only the strong and handsome are left--these are projects about which we know all that we need to know by now. And the private misanthrope who cannot bear the errors and defects of his neighbors is a poor friend and a domestic tyrant in his little sphere." [Judith N. Shklar, Ordinary Vices 3 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984)]

"Too much ‘moral' talk springs from motives that have little to do with a hope for anyone's possible betterment: revenge, greed, political power, self-praise and exculpation. It is easier to find examples of 'moral discourse' designed to put others down than of genuine inquiry about the good and bad of behavior." [Wayne C. Booth, The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction 484, n.1 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988)]