Quotes About Ethics

the euro, it seems, is stuck in a political no man's land – trapped between two opposing world views. And the battleground is not economics, but ethics.

However, it's in a less formal book by Bentham, The Commonplace Book, that you find the phrase 'the happiness of the greatest number', which really sums up the philosophy. ('commonplace books' being a kind of posh scrapbook popular at the time with intellectuals to copy out their favourite poems and so on.)

Nothing could persuade him to accept the possibility of compromise with evil at the expense of others, or to abandon his faith in the rule of law, the supremacy of elected Parliaments and the rights of the individual.

To be good is noble; to teach others how to be good is nobler, & no trouble.

El deseo de una ética se vuelve tanto más apremiante cuanto más aumenta, hasta la desmesura, el desconcierto el hombre, tanto el manifiesto como el que permanece oculto.

What is decision anyway?

Man is the shepherd of Being.

it's never wrong time to do the right thing

The time is always right to do what is right.

One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right? There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right.

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But...the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right when the head is totally wrong

We must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil.

Martin Luther King Jr.

There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right....

So I have tried to make it clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.

The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.

On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question, "Is it right?"... The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of convenience, but where he stands in moments of challenge, moments of great crisis and controversy.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.

Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right

On the parable of the Good Samaritan: I imagine that the first question the priest and Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But by the very nature of his concern, the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?