Quotes about Moral Principles

I assure you the law isn't a line engraved in marble, immovable and unchangeable through the centuries. Rather...the law is like a string, fixed at both ends but with a great deal of play in it-very loose, the line of the law-so you can stretch it this way or that, rearrange the arc of it so you are always-short of the blantant theft or cold-blooded murder-safely on the right side.

Ethics to me is very important.

My shows are basically about ethics.

May you live your life as if the maxim of your actions were to become universal law.

If we only obey those rules that we think are just and reasonable, then no rule will stand, for there is no rule that some will not think is unjust and unreasonable.

How conscience tells us that we ought to be fair, nobody knows. This we can say: we don't know it just from being told, we don't know it from the five senses, and we don't know it by inference from prior knowledge. We just know it. The knowledge is "underived.

But whose idea of decency? And decency for who? Speak up and tell us what decency is. Tell us how much better a decent dead man feels than an indecent live one.

Sometimes I have to compromise my views, but I never compromise on issues like the death penalty and the arm trade laws, despite what the readers or letters may say.

For I can raise no money by vile means.

I used to get some flack from my agents because I wouldn't even audition for parts where the hero uses violent force to be a hero.

What most men call their conscience is imaginary virtue switching left or right according to self-interest.

Even a pacifist should admire the military virtues.

To declare that in the administration of criminal law the end justifies the means to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure conviction of a private criminal would bring terrible retribution.

As a good rule of thumb, if you have to lie, you might be doing something wrong.

And good men are very threatening to not good men.

Developing and maintaining integrity require constant attention. John Weston, chairman and CEO of Automatic Data Processing, Inc., says, "I`ve always tried to live with the following simple rule: Don`t do what you wouldn`t feel comfortable reading about in the newspapers the next day." That`s a good standard all of us should keep.

where principle is involved, be deaf to expediency." A good place to start, but I am afraid it is seldom that simple. The black-and-white is easy; the tough choices are gray.

what miserable creatures great men are when they have no high principles within them and no faith in the reality of a God above them.

When a nation was faced with a choice between abstract principle or complete self-interest, it took self-interest every time.

Our human laws are more or less imperfect copies of the external laws as we see them.

I recognize that what you believe doesn't matter in the slightest. All that matters is how you personally behave.

Being accused of having double standards is preferable to being convicted—due to our own refusal to act—of honoring no standards at all.

In modern times, in my opinion, either everything is a moral question or there are no more moral questions. Nowadays, there are no compromises or there are only compromises. Never influenced, I keep my vigil. There is no letting up.

The pain is not about having cheap people around…. real pain is the fact that there are some people with a price to start with.