Quotes About Ethics

When I was young and had no sense In far-off Mandalay I lost my heart to a Burmese girl As lovely as the day. Her skin was gold, her hair was jet, her teeth were ivory; I said, For twenty silver pieces, Maiden, sleep with me. She looked at me, so pure, so sad, The loveliest thing alive, And in her lisping, virgin voice, Stood out for twenty-five.

An army of unemployed led by millionaires quoting the Sermon on the Mount—that is our danger.

You're dishonoured, somehow. You've sinned. Sinned against the aspidistra. You talk a great deal about aspidistras, said Ravelston. They're a dashed important subject, said Gordon.

it is perhaps one's own fault, to see oneself drifting, rotting, in dishonour and horrible futility, and all the while knowing that somewhere within one there is the possibility of a decent human being.

Hitherto, the rights and wrongs had seemed so beautifully simple.

Much better hang wrong fellow than no fellow.

I hate purity, I hate goodness! I don't want any virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone corrupt to the bones.' 'Well then, I ought to suit you, dear. I'm corrupt to the bones.

It struck him as curious that you could create dead men but not living ones.

Vice is punished, but virtue is not rewarded

At the time I could not see beyond the moral dilemma that is presented to the weak in a world governed by the strong: Break the rules, or perish.

A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him.

Sports have nothing to do with fair play. They are bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence

A humanitarian is always a hypocrite

All in all it is difficult not to feel that pacifism, as it appears among a section of the intelligentsia, is secretly inspired by an admiration for power and successful cruelty.

I watched him with some interest, for it was the first time that I had seen a person whose profession was telling lies—unless one counts journalists.

how men, when given power over other men, start to behave like pigs.

even the best wall in the world deserves to be pulled down if it surrounds a concentration camp.

Libel settles nothing.

But what a way to do things-never to perform a decent action until you are kicked into it and the rest of the world has ceased to believe that your motives can possibly be honest.

The real reason why I should not like to be in the book trade for life is that while I was in it I lost my love of books. A bookseller has to tell lies about books, and that gives him a distaste for them.

the god in men is also the devil the moment it begins to masticate on the morsels of power.

The outcry against killing women, if you accept killing at all, is sheer sentimentality. Why is it worse to kill a woman than a man?

It is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during 'God save the King' than of stealing from a poor box

No domínio da vida quotidiana afigurava-se, sem dúvida, necessário, pelo menos às vezes, reflectir antes de falar, mas um membro do Partido chamado a emitir um juízo político ou ético devia ser capaz de disparar as opiniões correctas tão automaticamente como uma metralhadora dispara balas.