Quotes About Ethics

War in the era of machines could not possibly breed virtues like chivalry, courage, honor or manliness ... It imposed upon men nothing but the experience of bare destruction together with the humiliation of being only small cogs in the majestic wheel of slaughter.

In the simplicity of everyday life one rule reigns supreme: Each good action, even for a 'bad cause,' adds some real goodness to the world; each bad action even for the most beautiful of all ideals makes our common world a little worse.

Toda virtud comienza con el cumplido que se le hace, mediante el cual se expresa la satisfacción por ella.

The soldier must say Yes when he thinks Yes. But when many say Yes and think No, when they feel forced to say Yes, though they think No, or when they say Yes for the sake of their careers, their own comfort or self-interest while their consciences tell them No, the point has been reached where true soldiering dies out altogether. And not only soldiering. This is death's great triumph. For when conscience dies, mankind dies with it.

We all play God every day. When a woman buys a new pair of expensive shoes, she could have spent that same money feeding someone who was starving. In a sense, those shoes mean more to her than a life. We all kill to make our lives more comfortable. We don't put it in those terms. But we do.

Man may be evil or good, that wasn't the issue. The issue was that man rarely considered the consequences of his actions. In short, man was often just plain stupid.

You're not a hypocrite. You aim toward lofty heights. The fact that your arrow cannot always reach them does not make you a hypocrite.

Man may be evil or good, that wasn't the issue. The issue was that man rarely considered the consequences of his actions.

I would rather French-kiss a live rodent than shake the man's hand, but in prison, you do what you have to.

So I'm a hypocrite," Myron said. "Happy?" "But that is my point," Win said. "What?" "You're not a hypocrite. You aim toward lofty heights. The fact that your arrow cannot always reach them does not make you a hypocrite.

killing the allegorical two birds with one stone, which was a really violent and weird image when you stopped and thought about it. You throw a stone and kill two birds—and this is a good thing?

I needed information. I broke laws to get it. One could easily rationalize what I had done. The case for obtaining that information while giving Edward a touch of comeuppance was certainly compelling. But

You're the most trustworthy cop I know," Wilde said, "and look at how you bent the rules when it came to finding a cop killer.

It was also lazy parenting, he thought. Teach them to do the right thing because it's the right thing—not because Mom and Dad are looking over your shoulder.

They'll totally hire me if I say I got fired from my job on the Hill because of a sex scandal.

There is but one honest limit to the rights of a sentient being; it is where they touch the rights of another sentient being.

When death comes, it is not enough to have been charitable; and it is not right to touch the body or lay it out for a couple of hours; for the soul should be given time to fight for itself, and to go up to judgment.

There is such a thing as a national conscience, and it can be touched.

I'm very touched on a deep level by cruelty to animals.

Cinema is my religion. It is a way to make people sensitive, through emotions. To make them feel, experience empathy. People are touched and act ethically when they are emotionally touched.

There is the expression of selfishness and there is the expression of selflessness - but economists or theoreticians never touched that part. They said: 'Go and become a philanthropist.' I said, 'No, I can do that in the business world, create a different kind of business - a business based on selflessness.'

I haven't touched a piece of meat since I read a graphic description of Chicago's slaughterhouses when I was 12.

When you think about it, we actors are kind of prostitutes. We get paid to feign attraction and love. Other people are paying to watch us kissing someone, touching someone, doing things people in a normal monogamous relationship would never do with anyone who's not their partner. It's really kind of gross.

I don't think a tough question is disrespectful.