Quotes About Ethics

Sacrifice must be weighed by the pain of what is surrendered, and this alone was the true measure of a virtue's worth.

Since when did ethics and morality become weapons of submission?

indeed no virtue of pragmatism was possible in matters of the soul, and might even prove anathema to the very notion of the sacred.

Rely not upon conscience,' Feren said, hearing the bitterness in her own voice and not caring. 'It ever kneels to necessity.' 'And necessity is often a lie

Speaking of which, what's your take on abortion?' 'Do you eat eggs?' 'Excuse me?' 'The unborn embryos of chickens, Samantha.

All real acts of chivalry are forms of repressed behavior.

Why not worship money? At least its rewards are obvious and immediate. But no, that was simplistic. Letherii worship was more subtle, its ethics bound to those traits and habits that well served the acquisition of wealth. Diligence, discipline, hard work, optimism, the personalization of glory. And the corresponding evils: sloth, despair and the anonymity of failure.

Humans insisted on others behaving properly, but rarely forced the same standards upon themselves. Justifications dispensed with logic, thriving on opportunism and delusions of pious propriety.

the question of what is deserved should rarely, if ever, be asked. Asking it leads to deadly judgement, and acts of unmitigated evil. Atrocity revisited in the name of justice breeds its own atrocity

Look, Tammy, it's part of our mandate. We barrel in, we fuck things up, and then we walk away feeling good about our selves.

To rule is to kneel before expediency.

Destiny is a lie. Destiny is justification for atrocity. It is the means by which murderers armour themselves against reprimand. It is a word intended to stand in place of ethics, denying all moral context.

Berns was vitally concerned about the philosophical ground of virtue in the individual, which was the necessary foundation of a decent regime. Jaffa was concerned with the philosophic ground of the regime, which he thought was the necessary foundation for individual virtue.

A weapon does not decide whether or not to kill. A weapon is a manifestation of a decision that has already been made.

There are those here who believe they are right simply because they oppose something that is evil.

to have knowledge of means to have responsibility to means to have care for.

Mom told me that. When someone is acting inappropriately, don't normalize it. Make it clear to everyone that you are not okay with the behavior.

A hungry man thinks only about how he can feed his family today. He doesn't care that how he feeds them today destroys his children's tomorrow.

A person's right to believe, however, does not grant them an automatic license to act indiscriminately on those beliefs.

think in terms of a continuum of influence: at one end, respectful, ethical, growth-enhancing influence that recognizes the value of individuality, human rights, and creativity; at the other end, conformity, dependency, and slavery, where all authority lies with the leader and the group.

all human beings have the right to protection from undue influence, a concept the law has recognized for at least five centuries.

Because Zen overturns good versus evil on the ideal level, it loses sight of the significance of problems involving good versus evil in the real realm, which are not adequately addressed due to a shirking of responsibility and lack of remorse for transgressions.

But exaltation of humanity in no way justifies unchecked devotion at the expense of others who inhabit our world and perhaps worlds beyond.

T]hink about culture as the collective manifestation of value—where value is that which is valuable to "sufficiently complex" agents, from which meaning, purpose, ethics, and aesthetics can be derived.