Quotes About Ethics

Calamity is the test of integrity.

for my master, bad as I have thought him, is not half so bad as this woman.--To be sure she must be an atheist!

Well, but, Mrs. Jervis, said I, let me ask you, if he can stoop to like such a poor girl as me, as perhaps he may, (for I have read of things almost as strange, from great men to poor damsels,) What can it be for?—He may condescend, perhaps, to think I may be good enough for his harlot; and those things don't disgrace men that ruin poor women, as the world goes.

What is warranted by the direction of nature's light is warranted by the law of nature, and consequently by a divine law; for who can deny the law of nature to be a divine law?

An unlawful war can't make lawful captives.

But, learn that although all men are for sale, they don't sell themselves to all buyers.

It's what I've always said. To be alive is a reflection on one's character.

Gomers are human beings who have lost what goes into being human beings. They want to die, and we will not let them.

If a man is not rising upwards to be an angel, depend upon it, he is sinking downwards to be a devil.

Plagiarists are always suspicious of being stolen from, as pickpockets are observed commonly to walk with their hands in their breeches' pockets.

All sympathy not consistent with acknowledged virtue is but disguised selfishness.

Good and bad men are less than they seem.

The present system of taking oaths is horrible. It is awfully absurd to make a man invoke God's wrath upon himself, if he speaks false; it is, in my judgment, a sin to do so.

There is no such thing as a worthless book though there are some far worse than worthless; no book that is not worth preserving, if its existence may be tolerated; as there may be some men whom it may be proper to hang, but none should be suffered to starve.

He made money in pawnbroking and moneylending, which is never nice, but also traded in goat skins – which is at least unusual.

I'm a true believer in karma. You get what you give, whether it's bad or good.

I came to consider betrayal a moral violation of another's humanity—akin to torture.

Letting someone believe something that is not true produces the same result as saying something false: It is the passive version of lying.

Give what you believe in and not what you have.

Those noble men who falsehood dread In wealth and glory ever grow, As flames with greater brightness glow With oil in ceaseless flow when fed.

Wealth without virtue is no harmless neighbor.

For the man who is beautiful is beautiful to see but the good man will at once also beautiful be

He who is beautiful is so only when seen, but he who is good is beautiful at once.

rikkaus ilman hyvettä on vaarallista; mutta molempien yhtymisestä seuraa korkein onni