Quotes About Ethics

Good job, said Lonnie, who'd been watching from the balcony. Thanks, said Jay, pleased with how everything had turned out. He smiled when he realized he hadn't even had to steal anything to get what he wanted. He'd done it all by playing by the rules.

Humans were not to be toyed with, they were to be respected.

Perhaps drugging the woman he intended to fall in love with wasn't the accepted method of kindling a passionate romance, yet Archimedes considered it the most sensible way to proceed.

And while we are living, we receive no punishment but what we put on each other or that we make for ourselves

His mother had taught him exactly that: To do what must be done. But she had taught him to do it while having a heart. Not heartlessly.

But she would not think better of him just because he possessed the decency not to blackmail her. Refusing to take advantage of a woman should be a basic part of any man's character, and lauding him for it would be like commending someone for having lungs to breathe with.

If we absolutely can't feel good about something we're doing, then we shouldn't do it - no matter how charitable it seems. We also shouldn't do things for others that they ought to and are capable or doing for themselves. Other people aren't helpless. Neither are we.

The more uncivilised the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. The truly civilised man is always skeptical and tolerant. His culture is based on 'I am not too sure'.

Witch' is just a religion, okay? No baby-sacrificing, no Black Masses, no sending imps out to scare the dog-snot out of kids, trying to make them think they're crazy. We don't do things like that. Our number-one law is 'Have fun in this lifetime, but don't hurt anybody.' Nice little paraphrase of An it harm none, do as ye will if I do say so myself.

Evil done in the name of a Power of good is still evil. And good done in the name of a Power of evil is still good.

Don't you see, Stef? It's not that I'm serving Valdemar, it's that I'm helping to preserve the kind of people who leave the world better than they found it, and trying to stop the ones who take instead of giving.

They didn't have to be true to be good.

The willpower to do anything would come, the songs and writings said, if the motive was pure.

Yer a worse gossip than a old woman.: :It's only gossip if you repeat it. Until then, it's gathering information.:

Life isn't fair' is nothing but an excuse people make to justify bad things they do. But why shouldn't life be fair? What's keeping it from being fair? Those same cruel, mean, and evil people. I think you understand that, Mags—maybe not in your head, but in your heart, which is more important. And the more people there are who try to make life fair, the more likely it is that it will become fair. Don't you want that?:

There were all kinds of things that people could have done and should have done that would have prevented it. And they didn't. Because the people in power liked where they were just fine, thanks, and they stayed there because of people with money. And the people with the money didn't want to lose a single cent of that money doing the right things. Power makes you stop thinking of anything but yourself.

Life isn't fair' is nothing but an excuse people make to justify bad things they do. But why shouldn't life be fair? What's keeping it from being fair? Those same cruel, mean, and evil people.

There are more than enough people in this world who only want cheaper goods, and don't care how they're made, or what the hidden costs are.

People did stupid, sometimes unkind things. People did things that were a little bad, things that they were ashamed of. People cheated a little on their taxes, got a little greedy, sometimes they pilfered something that wasn't properly theirs, they quarreled, they abused each other (but never to the point that it would call for a Herald's intervention) and were basically just . . . people. A little good, a little bad, mostly just getting by. Not

Witch' is just a religion, okay? No baby-sacrificing, no Black Masses, no sending imps out to scare the dog-snot out of kids, trying to make them think they're crazy. We don't do things like that. Our number-one law is 'Have fun in this lifetime, but don't hurt anybody.'" Nice little paraphrase of "An it harm none, do as ye will," if I do say so myself.

Keth, power brings with it the need to make moral judgments; history proves that. You have no choice but to make those decisions.

If the person you're speaking to will think worse or less of the person you're speaking about, then it's gossip, so cut it out!

The widespread assumption that ethical behavior takes the fun out of life is false. In actuality, living ethically ensures that relationships in our lives, including encounters with strangers, nurture our spiritual growth.

Refusal to stand up for what you believe in weakens individual morality and ethics as well as those of the culture.