Quotes About Ethics

Yes, we humans are more than merely biological creatures. We appreciate beauty, we struggle with ethical conflicts, and we strive to make sense of our purpose in the universe, asking questions that science cannot answer. And yet, our sense of aesthetics, our moral sensibilities, and our search for meaning may themselves be intricately connected to the fabric of the cosmos.

Thou shalt not forget that money is only money and not character or fame.

We don't need to be taught to lie, or to be selfish or cruel or vindictive—we need to be taught how not to.

The true nature of man left to himself without restraint is not nobility but savagery

The only people who aren't hypocrites are those whose morals are so twisted, whose consciences are so seared, that they don't believe in any ideals higher than those they actually live out.

Justice doesn't always have clean hands, and we all have dark desires clawing at our wills.

SANSHO THE BAILIFF (1954) 'Without compassion a man is no longer human.' So states Taira.

The larger question is, as virologist Jonas Salk once asked, "Are we being good ancestors?

CAFOs house them as tightly as possible where they never see grass or sunlight. If you can envision one thousand chickens in your bathroom, in cages stacked to the ceiling, you're honestly getting the picture. (Actually a six-foot by eight room could house 1,152).

I always thought having a ring doctor at a boxing match was like having a preacher in a whore house. If a fighter is worried about his health, he's obviously chosen the wrong profession.

Where do all the things you believed go, when all the supporting structure is found to be a myth? How do you know how or on what to take a moral stand, how do you behave when it turns out there are no cosmic rules, no categorical imperatives?

Even when zeroing in on privacy, they showboated.

From their point of view, it seemed to indicate another hacker sin — inefficiency.

And I have always believed that one's politics and the character of his particular work are inseparable.

To act morally is not to act out of fear of punishment; it is not to act as one is commanded to act. Rather, it is to act as one ought to act. And how one ought to act is not dependent upon anyone's power, even if the power be Divine.

Alas, our technology has marched ahead of our spiritual and social evolution, making us, frankly, a dangerous people.

What would Apollonius of Tyana do?"—always his test for making a difficult decision—

The notion that anyone should be indefinitely locked away, even for the most horrible crime, is too cruel even for Roman tastes.

I'm not really interested in making money.

Having been given that public trust, we have a responsibility to share with the public.

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

La religion est une insulte à la dignité humaine. Que ce soit avec ou sans elle, il y aura toujours des gens bien qui font de bonnes choses, et des mauvais qui font de mauvaises choses. Mais pour que des gens bien agissent mal, il faut la religion.

Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion.

Democritus wrote books on ethics, natural science, mathematics, and music, of which many fragments survive. One of these fragments expresses the view that all matter consists of tiny indivisible particles called atoms (from the Greek for "uncuttable"), moving in empty space: "Sweet exists by convention, bitter by convention; atoms and Void [alone] exist in reality.