Quotes About Ethics

Quanto ad adottare le soluzioni offerte dallo Stato per portare rimedio al male - io, quelle soluzioni, non le conosco: richiedono troppo tempo e un uomo morirebbe prima di riuscire a metterle in atto. Ho altre cose cui badare. Venni al mondo non principalmente per trasformarlo in un luogo buono dove vivere ma per vivervi, buono o cattivo che fosse. Un uomo non deve fare tutto, ma qualche cosa; e poiché tutto non lo può fare, non è necessario che faccia qualcosa di sbagliato.

If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing that you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated again.

The only government that I recognize,—and it matters not how few are at the head of it, or how small its army,—is that power that establishes justice in the land, never that which establishes injustice. What shall we think of a government to which all the truly brave and just men in the land are enemies, standing between it and those whom it oppresses? A government that pretends to be Christian and crucifies a million Christs every day!

It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous, wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support. If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders.

for the devil finds employment for the idle

Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

It is not so important that many should be good as you, as that there be some absolute goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump.

There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.

This people must cease to hold slaves, and to make war on Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people.

Penso che dovremmo essere uomini prima di essere sudditi. Non è da augurarsi che l'uomo coltivi il rispetto per le leggi ma piuttosto che rispetti ciò che è giusto.

The tavern will compare favorably with the church.

No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a patch in his clothes; yet I am sure that there is greater anxiety, commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean and unpatched clothes, than to have a sound conscience.

There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live.

si elle (la loi) est d'une telle nature qu'elle fasse de vous l'agent de l'injustice vis-à-vis d'autrui alors je déclare qu'il faut enfreindre la loi

La seule obligation que j'aie le droit d'adopter, c'est d'agir à tout moment selon ce qui me paraît juste.

Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.

As for adopting the ways which the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man's life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has not everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong.

Si vous voulez convaincre un homme qu'il agit mal, agissez bien. Mais ne vous souciez pas de le convaincre. Les hommes croient ce qu'ils voient. Alors, donnez-leur à voir.

Toda nuestra vida es sorprendentemente moral. No hay un instante de tregua entre la virtud y el vicio.

The ways by which you get money almost without exception lead downward

There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man.

Ci sono novecentonovantanove sostenitori della virtù ogni uomo virtuoso, ma è più facile trattare con il reale possessore di qualcosa che con il suo guardiano temporaneo.

Sotto un governo che imprigiona ingiustamente non importa chi, il vero posto dove può vivere un uomo giusto è la prigione.

Ma il ricco [...] è sempre colluso con l'istituzione che lo fa ricco. In termini assoluti, più soldi corrispondono a minor virtù, poiché il denaro si insinua tra l'uomo e i suoi obbiettivi e glieli ottiene, però a scapito della sua onestà.