Quotes About Ethics

We were taught that, even if we wore a uniform, that our first sworn duty was to our conscience, no matter what the consequences.

After all, why would a doctor worry about the confidentiality of her patient if she didn't believe that patient was still alive?

Shame's a powerful weapon, but it depended on everyone else doing the right thing.

From that moment on we lived in true freedom, the freedom to point to someone else and say "They told me to do it! It's their fault, not mine." The freedom, God help us, to say "I was only following orders.

der Terror, scheint es, eignet sich beonders zur Vernichtung sittlicher Menschen.

What's the difference between contraception and abortion? Both are expressions of the human will not to have children.

To be consistent, those who argue that abortion is "unnatural" would have to say: no penicillin, no lightning rods, no eyeglasses, no DDT, no radar and so on.

Scope neglect and the identifiable victim effect encourage our intuitive innumeracy and lead to poor decision making. In contrast, most of us would endorse the goal of choosing behaviors—such as contributing money or investing our time—where we can do as much good as possible, rather than simply feeling like we made a difference.

Bruce's strategy had little to do with changing people's values and everything to do with motivating them to change their behavior, with little or no sacrifice required.

Without an awareness of blind spots, traditional approaches to ethics won't be particularly useful in improving behavior. If, like most people, you routinely fail to recognize the ethical components of decisions, succumb to common cognitive biases, and think you behave more unethically than you actually do, then being taught which ethical judgment you should make is unlikely to improve your ethicality.

Republicans typically fight against new taxes and cuts in defense spending, while Democrats resist cuts to social services. Both sides believe they are defending ethical principles. Yet they both pursue their political agenda while collectively ignoring the unethical financial mess they are leaving for future generations.

When choosing the lesser of two evils, always remember, it is still an evil.

The ripple of today's lie is tomorrow's wave and next year's flood.

Sometimes we do the wrong thing for the right reason. We've all been there.

You want to make a difference in your world? Live a holy life: Be faithful to your spouse. Be the one at the office who refuses to cheat. Be the neighbor who acts neighborly. Be the employee who does the work and doesn't complain. Pay your bills. Do your part and enjoy life. Don't speak one message and live another. People are watching the way we act more than they are listening to what we say.

Practically put, we love our neighbor and refrain from gossip. We refuse to cheat on taxes and spouses and do our best to love people who are tough to love. Do we do this in order to be saved? No. These are "the good things that result from being saved.

It is not that we can't do good. We do. It's just that we can't keep from doing bad. In theological terms, we are "totally depraved." Though made in God's image, we have fallen. We're corrupt at the core. The very center of our being is selfish and perverse. David said, "I was born a sinner—yes, from the moment my mother conceived me" (Ps. 51:5 NLT).

Belief always precedes behavior.

You will never go wrong doing what is right.

consequence free.

His Good list outstripped the Evil list; Good may always preponderate in this method of reckoning.

Adultery, perhaps only a mistake during good times, became a crime when the village needed food.

Adopt the motto—It doesn't matter who's right, but what's right.

One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.