Quotes About Ethics

He had sprung from a rigid Puritan stock, and had been brought up to think much more intently of the duties of this life than of its privileges and pleasures.

But I care myself if I tell fibs; I never tell them unless there's something rather good to be gained.

the high brutality of good intentions ...

When I'm bad I am bad !

I know at least what I am,' he simply went on; 'the other side of the medal's clear enough. I've not been edifying--I believe I'm thought in a hundred quarters to have been barely decent. I've followed strange paths and worshipped strange gods; it must have come to you again and again--in fact you've admitted to me as much--that I was leading, at any time these thirty years, a selfish frivolous scandalous life. And you see what it has made of me.

Whether or no being hopelessly vulgar is being 'bad' is a question for the metaphysicians.

It is very wrong to make love to a woman who is engaged, but it is very wrong not to make love to a woman who is married.

There may be unselfish natures, there may be disinterested feelings.

That was the refinement of his supreme scruple—

grave inconvenience, they would incur. This would give a sense--which the spirit required, rather ached and sighed in the absence of--that somebody was paying something somewhere and somehow, that they were at least not all floating together on the silver stream of impunity.

One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one.

Estoy muerto espiritualmente. Físicamente, estoy vivo. Moralmente, soy libre.

Åžeytan'? iyi tan?yorsam, Ä°çgüdülerine güvenme, sezgilerinden uzak dur, der o. Bizim insan kalmam?z? ister - hem de insandan fazla insan. DüÅŸüÅŸe geçmiÅŸsen bunu sürdürmen için itici gücünü kullan?r. Uçurumdan aÅŸa?? itmez seni - yaln?zca kenar?na dek getirir. Ve orada art?k onun elindesindir, ne yapaca?? insaf?na kalm?? demektir.

I want to prevent as many men as possible from pretending that they have to do this or that because they must earn a living. It is not true. One can starve to death—it is much better. Every man who voluntarily starves to death jams another cog in the automatic process. I would rather see a man take a gun and kill his neighbor, in order to get the food he needs, than keep up the automatic process by pretending that he has to earn a living.

Why do lovely faces haunt us so? Do extraordinary flowers have evil roots?

Moralistlerin tutkusu olan, varl???n "iÄŸrenç" davran??lar?n? ortadan kald?rma çabas? yaln?zca saçma deÄŸil, ayn? zamanda boÅŸunad?r da. Bir insan, çirkin, "günah" düÅŸünce ve isteklerini, içgüdü ve itkilerini bast?rmay? baÅŸarabilir, ama bunun sonuçlar? y?k?ma yol açabilir. ErmiÅŸ olmakla katil olmak aras?ndaki s?n?r, k?l kadar incedir.

Along with every right thing to do is a right way to do it.

What we do belongs to who we are; and what we are is what becomes of us.

When you battle with your conscience and lose, you win.

Allow yourself to think only those thoughts that match your principles and can bear the bright light of day. Day by day, your choices, your thoughts, your actions fashion the person you become. Your integrity determines your destiny.

The preservation of health is a duty. Few seem conscious that there is such a thing as physical morality.

They who employ force by proxy are as much responsible for that force as though they employed it themselves.

Education has for its object the formation of character.

And your police are like our police in the Realm?' Blue said. 'They flog you if you do something wrong and cut off your hand if you're caught stealing?' No, they don't do that, Henry said uncertainly. Why not? It's pretty silly not to, isn't it?' Blue said.