Quotes About Ethics

Es preciso que la justicia criminal, en lugar de vengarse, castigue al fin. Esta necesidad de un castigo sin suplicio se formula en primer lugar como un grito del corazón o de la naturaleza indignada: en el peor de los asesinos, hay una cosa al menos que debe respetarse cuando se castiga: su "humanidad".

El exceso y la pasividad son, para un hombre, las dos formas mayores de la inmoralidad en la práctica de las aphrodisia.

During the years 1945-1965, there was a certain way of thinking correctly, a certain style of political discourse, a certain ethics of the intellectual. One had to be on familiar terms with Marx, not let one's dreams stray too far from Freud.

Chaque individu doit mener sa vie de manière à ce que les autres puissent la respecter et l'admirer.

in a classless society, I am not sure that we would still use this notion of justice

C'est par pur préjugé moral que nous accordons plus de valeur à la vérité qu'à l'apparence.

Now it could be said that he who cheats and deceits does so because he wants to win. So the first attribute of God consists in being indifferent to winning. Detach yourself from notions of winning or losing, be indifferent to victory or loss, you will enter into science, observation, discovery and thought.

What is the good of power and precision if the price we pay is ugliness and death? What is the good of thinking, if we have no idea how to live?

And the facts were politicians liked money and power. They tended to be greedy bastards, more like whores than anything else. Most would sell their souls if they thought it would get them what they wanted—money and power.

I may not be evil, but that doesn't mean I'm a saint.

No...if the world demanded their deaths in return for safety, she would have watched it burn.

I'm sworn to uphold his laws. Saying that you killed someone because they annoyed you isn't codified as acceptable, by those laws, anywhere I'm aware of. You are clearly not looking carefully enough.

I don't mind doing awful things as long as somebody else does. I would totally jump off the bridge, thanks for asking.

when a person tells a lie, he simultaneously has to know the truth, concoct the lie, and rapidly analyze the consistency of this lie with previously known facts.

Scientists can also insert a chip into the brain of a patient who is totally paralyzed and connect it to a computer, so that through thought alone that patient can surf the web, read and write e-mails, play video games, control their wheelchair, operate household appliances, and manipulate mechanical arms. In fact, such patients can do anything a normal person can do via a computer.

White lies, in fact, are like a grease that makes society run smoothly.

I'm as fond of my body as anyone, but if I can be 200 with a body of silicon, I'll take it. —DANIEL HILL, COFOUNDER OF THINKING MACHINES CORP.

La idea de crear máquinas pensantes que sean al menos tan listas como los animales, y quizá tan listas o más que nosotros, se hará una realidad si podemos superar el colapso de la ley de Moore y el problema del sentido común, quizá incluso a finales de este siglo.

are skilled in the techniques necessary to neutralize any rogue robot.

When Louise Brown, the world's first test tube baby, was born in 1978, the technology that made it possible was denounced by many clergymen and columnists, who believed that we were playing God. Today there are more than five million test tube babies in the world; your spouse or best friend may be one.

Sometimes you have to think like a hero just to behave like a decent human being.

Ratero, si un pobre se mete en casa de un rico, ya se sabe, es un ladrón ¿no? —Un ladrón —asintía el Ratero. —Pero si un rico se mete en casa de un pobre, ¿qué es? —¿Qué es? —repetía estúpidamente el tío Ratero. —¡Una rata!

You are never responsible for the actions of others; you are only responsible for you.

Even moral laws like the Ten Commandments are programmed into our mind in the process of domestication