Quotes About Morality

How can one deal in truth when one deals with the public? I don't understand you, she said very quietly. Questions of truth do not enter into social issues. No principles have ever had any effect on society. What, then, directs men's actions? He shrugged. The expediency of the moment

money is only a means to some end. If a man wants it for a personal purpose—to invest in his industry, to create, to study, to travel, to enjoy luxury—he's completely moral. But the men who place money first go much beyond that. Personal luxury is a limited endeavor. What they want is ostentation: to show, to stun, to entertain, to impress others. They're second-handers. Look

she thought of the world's code that worshipped white lies as an act of mercy—she felt a stab of a revulsion against that code, suddenly seeing its full ugliness for the first time

Integrity does not consist of loyalty to ones subjective whims, but of loyalty to rational principles

he had acquired the conviction that one had to concern oneself with the rational, not the insane—that one had to seek that which was right, because the right answer always won—that the senseless, the wrong, the monstrously unjust could not work, could not succeed, could do nothing but defeat itself.

Temes al hombre que tiene un dólar menos que tú, porque ese dólar es suyo por derecho y él te hace sentir como un estafador moral. Odias al hombre que tiene un dólar más que tú, porque ese dólar es tuyo por derecho y te hace sentir moralmente estafado. El hombre que está por debajo es la fuente de tu culpa; el hombre que está por arriba es la fuente de tu frustración.

The Objectivist ethics, in essence, hold that man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself to others, nor sacrifice others to himself. It is this last that Galt's statement summarizes.

All work is an act of philosophy. And when men will learn to consider productive work—and that which is its source—as the standard of their moral values, they will reach that state of perfection which is the birthright they lost..

There's nothing of any importance in life--except how well you do your work. Nothing. Only that. Whatever else you are, will come from that. It's the only measure of human value. All the codes of ethics they'll try to ram down your throat are just so much paper money put out by swindlers to fleece people of their virtues. The code of competence is the only system of morality that is on the gold standard.

Ethics does not apply to everything that exists, only to man, but it applies to every aspect of man's life: his character, his actions, his values, his relationship to all of existence. Ethics, or morality, defines a code of values to guide man's choices and actions—the choices and actions that determine the course of his life.

Whenever anyone accuses some person of being 'unfeeling,' he means that that person is just. He means that that person has no causeless emotions and will not grant him a feeling which he does not deserve. He means that 'to feel' is to go against reason, against moral values, against reality.

who lives on the sores of the poor and the blood of the rich—whom men have come to regard as a moral ideal. And this has brought us to a world where the more a man produces, the closer he comes to the loss of all his rights, until, if his ability is great enough, he becomes a rightless creature delivered as prey to any claimant—while in order to be placed above rights, above principles, above morality, placed where anything is

If it is now the belief of my fellow men, who call themselves the public, that their good requires victims, then I say: 'The public good be damned, I will have no part of it!

What is morality?" she asked. "Judgment to distinguish right and wrong, vision to see the truth, courage to act upon it, dedication to that which is good, integrity to stand by the good at any price. But where does one find it?

Si identificáis vuestras creencias, hallaráis en ellas una triple condenación: hacia vosotros, hacia la vida y hacia la virtud, en la grotesca conclusión a que habéis llegado al creer que la moralidad es un mal necesario.

What is morality, or ethics? It is a code of values to guide man's choices and actions—the choices and actions that determine the purpose and the course of his life. Ethics, as a science, deals with discovering and defining such a code.

La libertad que buscas es libertad del hecho de que si tu riqueza la hiciste robando, eres un ladrón, no importa cuánto dones a la caridad o cuántas plegarias recites;

The meaning of the term "duty" is: the moral necessity to perform certain actions for no reason other than obedience to some higher authority, without regard to any personal goal, motive, desire or interest.

A sacrifice, it is necessary to remember, means the surrender of a higher value in favor of a lower value or of a nonvalue. If one gives up that which one does not value in order to obtain that which one does value—or if one gives up a lesser value in order to obtain a greater one—this is not a sacrifice, but a gain.

la única manera de tener algo de ley es teniendo la menor cantidad posible. No encuentro ningún principio ético con el cual medir la concepción absolutamente inmoral de un Estado, salvo en la cantidad de tiempo, pensamiento, dinero, esfuerzo y obediencia que la sociedad arranca a cada uno de sus miembros.

No hay valor más alto que la propia estima, pero lo habéis invertido en obligaciones falsificadas y ahora vuestra moralidad os tiene en una trampa en la que os veis obligados a proteger la propia estima, luchando por el credo de la autodestrucción.

Sabe que ha de actuar de un modo adecuado. Equivocarse en la acción significa peligro para su vida; equivocarse en la persona, ser malo, significa no estar en condiciones para la existencia.

La fuerza y el espíritu son cosas opuestas; la moralidad acaba donde empieza a esgrimirse un arma.

Every political system is based on some code of ethics.