Quotes About Ethics

But all morality is of necessity shaped by context. I'm not talking relativism, no. To ignore the context of a decision is in fact immoral.

We live in a world full of accidents finally in which on aesthetic principles have a consistency of which we can be sure. Right and wrong we will struggle with forever striving to create and maintain an ethical balance. Right and wrong we will struggle with forever, striving to create and maintain an ethical balance; but the shimmer of summer rain under the street lamps or the great flashing glare of artillery against a night sky – such brutal beauty is beyond dispute.

Our way–the Western Way–has always been a work in progress. Questions of life and death, good and evil, justice and tragedy–these are never definitively settled, but must be addressed again and again as personal and public worlds shift and change. We hold our morals to be absolutes, but the context of our actions and decisions is forever changing. We are not relativists because we seek to re-evaluate again and again our most crucial moral positions.

everything a man does is part of the moral fabric of who he is, and what he is.

I tell you, Richard, if you ever get ready to sell your soul, don't bother to sell it to another human being. It's bad business to even consider such a thing.

It's all about aesthetics, morality and aesthetics are completely similar.

Evil is anything that goes against life, harms life, stifles life, destroys life. Evil is bringing harm to another person, inflicting unnecessary pain, suffering, or confusion. All evil comes from this. This is the root of all evil.

And what constitutes evil, real evil, is the taking of a single human life.

People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don't know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult.

I wanted love and goodness in this which is living death. It was impossible from the beginning, because you cannot have love and goodness when you do what you know to be evil, what you know to be wrong.

that one who commands must of necessity be wildly imperfect, boldly pragmatic, capable of compromises impossible for the truly wise and the truly good.

We can have ethics and we can have honor and we can have loyalty," he insisted, "and every other key virtue we learned as humans." He was roaring at me under his breath, as the British so often do it, with a veneer of silvery politeness.

Because if it's really true that there's no order, then anything can happen to us. Anything at all. There's no real natural law, no right and wrong that's immutable, and the world is suddenly a savage place where any number of things can go wrong.

I mean it's a concept born out of moral idiocy, this idea of love!

my motto, what it's always been. I refuse to be bad at what I do, and that includes being bad. I won't be bad at being bad. I

But Marchent, most journalists can't be trusted. You do know that, don't you?

can live without God. I can even come to live with the idea there is no life after. But I do not think I could go on if I did not believe in the possibility of goodness.

People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don't know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult.

LOVE ALL, TRUST A FEW, DO WRONG TO NONE.

Evil is always possible. Goodness is a difficulty.

the Jews believe each life is a universe, and if you take a life, well, then you are destroying a universe.

because in a way, everything a man does is part of the moral fabric of who he is, and what he is.

Oh, not goodness again," he said. "You and your malady of mortality, and your malady of goodness.

La gente que cesa de creer en dios o en la bondad todavía suele creer en el demonio. No sé por qué. O sí lo sé: la maldad es siempre posible, la bondad es una dificultad eterna.