Quotes About Ethics

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.

ella pregunto: -Francisco, ¿Cuál es el tipo más depravado que existe?. -El hombre que carece de propósitos.

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.

lo correcto siempre funciona y siempre triunfa.

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's on a gold standard.

A "compromise" does not consist of doing something one dislikes, but of doing something one knows to be evil.

Ellsworth was fifteen, when he astonished the Bible-class teacher by an odd question. The teacher had been elaborating upon the text: "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Ellsworth asked: "Then, in order to be truly wealthy, a man should collect souls?

no hay nada importante en la vida... excepto el modo en que se cumple la propia tarea. Nada. Tan solo eso. Todo cuanto seas procede de ahí. Es la vieja medida del valor humano. Todos los códigos de la ética que intentan hacerte tragar, son sólo papel moneda puesto en circulación por timadores para despojar de sus virtudes a la gente.

There is no such thing as duty. If you know that a thing is right, you want to do it. If you don't want to do it—it isn't right. If it's right and you don't want to do it—you don't know what right is and you're not a man.

You who won't allow one per cent of impurity into an alloy of metal," the unforgotten voice was saying to him, "what have you allowed into your moral code?

I can say—not as a patriotic bromide, but with full knowledge of the necessary metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, political and esthetic roots—that the United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world. | ~~Ayn Rand "Philosophy: Who Needs It, 10

He thought...that man's work should be a higher step, an improvement on nature, not a degradation. He did not want to despise men; he wanted to love and admire them.

Un ser de conciencia volitiva no puede seguir una conducta automática. Necesita un código de valores para guiar sus acciones. El valor hay que ganarlo y conservarlo; la virtud es la acción por la que se gana y se conserva aquél. El valor presupone una respuesta a la pregunta: ¿Valor para quién y para qué? El valor presupone una norma, un propósito y la necesidad de actuar frente a una alternativa. Donde no hay alternativas no son posibles los valores.

Morality is a code of black and white. When and if men attempt a compromise, it is obvious which side will necessarily lose and which will necessarily profit. Such are the reasons why—when one is asked: "Surely you don't think in terms of black-and-white, do you?"—the proper answer (in essence, if not in form) should be: "You're damn right I do!

Si existen grados de maldad, resulta difícil definir cuál es el más despreciable: si el bruto que asume el derecho a forzar la mente de otros, o el degenerado moral que ofrece a otros el derecho a forzar su mente.

Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive.

Una moralidad que se atreva a deciros que obtendréis la felicidad en la renunciación a vuestra dicha, que valoréis aquélla por el fracaso de vuestros valores, es una insolente negación de la moralidad.