IMMORAL, Adj. Inexpedient. Whatever In The Long Run And With Regard To The Greater Number Of Instances Men Find To Be Generally Inexpedient Comes To Be Considered Wrong, Wicked, Immoral.

IMMORAL, Adj. Inexpedient. Whatever In The Long Run And With Regard To The Greater Number Of Instances Men Find To Be Generally Inexpedient Comes To Be Considered Wrong, Wicked, Immoral.

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IMMORAL, adj. Inexpedient. Whatever in the long run and with regard
to the greater number of instances men find to be generally
inexpedient comes to be considered wrong, wicked, immoral. If man's
notions of right and wrong have any other basis than this of
expediency; if they originated, or could have originated, in any other
way; if actions have in themselves a moral character apart from, and
nowise dependent on, their consequences -- then all philosophy is a
lie and reason a disorder of the mind.
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"

Related:

INEXPEDIENT, adj. Not calculated to advance one's interests.
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
Inadmissible: Not competent to be considered. Said of certain kinds of testimony which juries are supposed to be unfit to be entrusted with
and which judges, therefore, rule out, even of proceedings before themselves alone....
MORAL, adj. Conforming to a local and mutable standard of right.
Having the quality of general expediency. It is sayd there be a raunge of mountaynes in the Easte, on one syde of the which certayn conducts are immorall, yet on the other syde they are holden in good esteeme...
LEAD, n. A heavy blue-gray metal much used in giving stability to light lovers -- particularly to those who love not wisely but other men's wives.
Lead is also of great service as a counterpoise to an argument of such weight that it turns the scale of debate the wrong way....
Long's Notes 1) Always store beer in a dark place.
2) Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent....
PRESIDENT, n. The leading figure in a small group of men of whom -- and of whom only -- it is positively known that immense numbers of their countrymen did not want any of them for President.
If that's an honor surely 'tis a greater To have been a simple and undamned spectator....
DAWN, n. The time when men of reason go to bed. Certain old men prefer to rise at about that time, taking a cold bath and a long walk with an empty stomach, and otherwise mortifying the flesh.
They then point with pride to these practices as the cause of their sturdy health and ripe yea...
HAKMEM /hak'mem/ n. MIT AI Memo 239 (February 1972).
A legendary collection of neat mathematical and programming hacks contributed by many people at MIT and elsewhere....
PREROGATIVE, n. A sovereign's right to do wrong. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary