G. E. Moore Quotes
George Edward Moore was a British philosopher and, with Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein, a founding figure of the analytic tradition at Cambridge. In Principia Ethica he argued that good is a simple, indefinable property and exposed what he called the naturalistic fallacy, the attempt to define good in terms of any natural feature. The quotes below are attributed to G. E. Moore, organized by topic.
G. E. Moore on Happiness
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Attributed to G. E. Moore:
“By far the most valuable things which we know or can imagine are certain states of consciousness, which may be roughly described as the pleasures of human intercourse and the enjoyment of beautiful objects.”
G. E. Moore on Knowledge
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Attributed to G. E. Moore:
“A philosophical question, when fully understood, will be found to be already half answered.”
G. E. Moore on Mind
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Attributed to G. E. Moore:
“It went out, but I do not believe it went out.”
G. E. Moore on Truth
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Attributed to G. E. Moore:
“Here is one hand, and here is another.”
G. E. Moore on Virtue
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Attributed to G. E. Moore:
“Good is good, and that is the end of the matter.”
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Attributed to G. E. Moore:
“In ethics the difficulty has been to discover what we mean when we use the word good.”