Quotes About Ethics

Un uomo saggio non lascia il giusto alla mercé del caso né desidera che esso si affermi attraverso il potere della maggioranza.

Virtue does not remain as an abandoned orphan; it must of necessity have neighbors.

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then?

All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency.

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.

If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. As if a town had no interest in its forests but to cut them down!

A maior parte das coisas que meus semelhantes consideram boas, creio no fundo da alma que são más, e se de alguma coisa me arrependo é provável que seja do meu bom comportamento. Que diabo se apossou de mim para que me comportasse tão bem?

Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice.

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think right.

greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior.

I am resolved that I will not through humility become the devil's attorney.

Toda nuestra vida es de una moral sorprendente. Entre la virtud y el vicio jamás hay un instante de tregua

The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad

I do not care to trace the course of my dollar, if I could, till it buys a man or a musket to shoot one with—the dollar is innocent—but I am concerned to trace the effects of my allegiance.

The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it.

si un hombre se adentra en los bosques por amor a ellos cada mañana, está en peligro de ser considerado un vago; pero si gasta su día completo especulando, cortando esos mismos bosques, y haciendo que la tierra se quede calva antes de tiempo, es un estimado y emprendedor ciudadano. Como si un pueblo no pudiese tener otro interés en un bosque que el de cortarlo

What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom?

The ways by which you may get money almost without exception lead downward. To have done anything by which you earned money merely is to have been truly idle or worse. If the laborer gets no more than the wages which his employer pays him, he is cheated, he cheats himself.

La legge non renderà mai gli uomini liberi; sono gli uomini a dover mantenere libera la legge.

Si un hombre pasea por el bosque por placer todos los días, corre el riesgo de que le tomen por un haragán, pero si dedica el día entero a especular cortando bosques y dejando la tierra árida antes de tiempo, se le estima por ser un ciudadano trabajador y emprendedor. ¡Como si una ciudad no tuviera más interés en sus bosques que el de talarlos!

Il solo obbligo che ho il diritto di assumermi è di fare in ogni momento quello che penso sia giusto fare.

A man is not a good man to me because he will feed me if I should be starving, or warm me if I should be freezing, or pull me out of a ditch if I should ever fall into one. I can find you a Newfoundland dog that will do as much.

If a man who has no property refuses but once to earn nine shillings for the State, he is put in prison for a period unlimited by any law that I know, and determined only by the discretion of those who put him there; but if he should steal ninety

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