Quotes About Ethics

Os conceitos da vida e do mundo que chamamos filosóficos são produto de dois fatores: um, constituído de fatores religiosos e éticos herdados; o outro, pela espécie de investigação que podemos denominar científica, empregando a palavra em seu sentido mais amplo.

the work of inspection was left to magistrates and clergymen. To the relief of employers, experience showed that magistrates and clergymen had no objection to law-breaking when its purpose was merely the torture of children.

We have two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice and another which we practice but seldom preach

Ahlakla ilgili olarak, büyük çapta, kiÅŸinin bu terimden ne anlad???na baÄŸl?d?r. Bana göre, önemli erdemler iyi yüreklilik ve zekâd?r. Her türlü inanç zekây? köstekler; günah ve ceza inanc? da iyi yürekliliÄŸi engeller.

Plato's Socrates had argued that to inflict injustice was a greater evil to the perpetrator than to suffer it.

One of the persistant delusions of mankind is that some sections of the human race are morally better or worse than others. This belief has many different forms, none of which has any rational basis.

The idealizing of the victim is useful for a time: if virtue is the greatest of goods, and if subjection makes people virtuous, it is kind to refuse them power, since it would destroy their virtue.

If men were rational, they would take a more correct view of their own interest than they do at present; and if all men acted from enlightened self-interest the world would be a paradise in comparison with what it is. I do not maintain that there is nothing better than self-interest as a motive to action; but I do maintain that self-interest, like altruism, is better when it is enlightened than when it is unenlightened.

The primary motive of sexual ethics as they have existed in Western civilisation since pre-Christian times has been to secure that degree of female virtue without which the patriarchal family becomes impossible, since paternity is uncertain.

To preach an altruistic morality appears to me somewhat useless, because it will appeal only to those who already have altruistic desires. But to preach rationality is somewhat different, since rationality helps us to realize our own desires on the whole, whatever they may be.

Is there a way of living that is noble and another that is base, or are all ways of living merely futile?

Metaphysics sink into the background, and ethics, now individual, become of the first importance. Philosophy is no longer the pillar of fire going before a few intrepid seekers after truth: it is rather an ambulance following in the wake of the struggle for existence and picking up the weak and wounded."XI

He is thus led, in practice, to regarding absence of pain, rather than presence of pleasure, as the wise man's goal.VI

On questions of fact, we can appeal to science and scientific methods of observation; but on ultimate questions of ethics there seems to be nothing analogous. Yet, if this is really the case, ethical disputes resolve themselves into contests for power—including propaganda power.

Because work is a duty, and a man should not receive wages in proportion to what he has produced, but in proportion to his virtue as exemplified by his industry.

Me temo que se está acabando la época de la gente bien; dos cosas la matan: la primera es la creencia de que no hay peligro en ser feliz con tal que no se haga daño a nadie; la segunda es la aversión a la farsa, aversión tanto estética como moral.

Consequently I shall not insist that a Christian must believe in hell.

There is a certain tendency in our practical age to consider that it does not much matter whether religious teaching is true or not, since the important question is whether it is useful.

Most people in civilized communities do not steal, and I think the usual motive is the great likelihood of punishment here on earth. This is borne out by the fact that in a mining camp during a gold rush, or in any such disorderly community, almost everybody steals.

I find among many people at the present day an indifference to truth which I cannot but think extremely dangerous.  When people argue, for example, in defense of Christianity, they do not, like Thomas Aquinas, give reasons for supposing that there is a God and that He has expressed His will in the Scriptures.  They argue instead that, if people think this, they will act better than if they do not.

Io non credo che la scienza per sé sia fonte adeguata di felicità, né credo che la mia mentalità scientifica abbia contribuito granché alla mia propria felicità. La scienza di per se stessa mi sembra neutra, essa, cioè, accresce il potere degli uomini per il bene come per il male. Una valutazione dello scopo della vita è cosa che va aggiunta alla scienza se si vuole che essa rechi felicità

To formulate any satisfactory modern ethic of human relationships, it will be essential to recognize the necessary limitations of men's power over the non-human environment, and the desirable limitations of their power over each other.

Suffering to the criminal can never be justified by the notion of vindictive punishment. If education combined with kindness is equally effective, it is to be preferred; still more is it to be preferred if it is more effective.

Creo que esta infelicidad se debe en muy gran medida a conceptos del mundo erróneos, a éticas erróneas, a hábitos de vida erróneos, que conducen a la destrucción de ese entusiasmo natural, ese apetito de cosas posibles del que depende toda felicidad, tanto la de las personas como la de los animales.