G.E. Moore

“If i am asked 'what is good? my answer is that good is good, and that is the end of the matter. Or if I am asked 'How is good to be defined?' my answer is that it cannot be defined, and that is all I have to say about it”

“Egoism holds, therefore, is that each man's happiness is the sole good--that a number of different things are each of them the only good thing there is--an absolute contradiction! No more complete and thorough refutation of any theory could be desired.”

“....it seems to me that a pleasurable Contemplation of Beauty has certainly an immeasurably greater value than mere Consciousness of Pleasure.”

“We must not, therefore, be frightened by the assertion that a thing is natural into the admission that it is good; good does not, by definition, mean anything that is natural; and it is therefore always an open question whether anything that is natural is good.”

“Was the excellence of Socrates or of Shakespeare normal? Was it not rather abnormal, extraordinary? It is, I think, obvious in the first place, that not all that is good is normal; that, on the contrary, the abnormal is often better than the normal...”

“Good, then, is indefinable....”

“...if good is defined as something else, it is then impossible either to prove that any other definition is wrong or even to deny such definition.”

“For it is the business of Ethics, I must insist, not only to obtain true results, but also to find valid reasons for them.”

“...fiction is as useful as truth, for giving us matter, upon which to exercise the judgment of value.”