Quotes About Ethics

From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.

never wish to see a just cause defended with unjust means

War seems to be ingrained in human nature, and even to be regarded as something noble to which man is inspired by his love of honor, without selfish motives.

Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good, without qualification, except a good will.

We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.

Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means.

act as if the maxim of your action were to become by your will a general law of nature.

If man is not to stifle his human feelings, he must practice kindness towards animals, for he who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.

Handle so, daß die Maxime deines Willens jederzeit zugleich als Prinzip einer allgemeinen Gesetzgebung gelten könne.

True politics cannot take a single step without first paying homage to morals, and while politics itself is a difficult art, its combination with morals is no art at all; for morals cuts the Gordian knot which politics cannot solve as soon as the two are in conflict.

The true religion is to be posited not in the knowledge or confession of what God allegedly does or has done for our salvation, but in what we must do to become worthy of this.

From the crooked timber of humanity, never was a straight thing made.

The will is conceived as a faculty of determining oneself to action in accordance with the conception of certain laws. And such a faculty can be found only in rational beings.

We can never, even by the strictest examination, get completely behind the secret springs of action.

The greatest human quest is to know what one must do in order to become a human being.

What does it avail, one will say, that this man has so much talent, that he is so active therewith, and that he exerts thereby a useful influence over the community, thus having a great worth both in relation to his own happy condition and to the benefit of others, if he does not possess a good will?

The touchstone of everything that can be concluded as a law for a people lies in the question whether the people could have imposed such a law on itself.

Inexperienced in the course of world affairs and incapable of being prepared for all the chances that happen in it, I ask myself only 'Can you also will that your maxim should become a universal law?' Where you cannot it is to be rejected...

What is more, we cannot do morality a worse service than by seeing to derive it from examples. Every example of it presented to me must first itself be judged by moral principles in order to decide if it is fit to serve as an original example...even the Holy One of the gospel must first be compared with our ideal of moral perfection before we can recognize him to be such.

Phantasie ist unser guter Genius oder unser Dämon.

If justice perishes, then it is no longer worthwhile for men to live upon the earth.

Ethical laws cannot be thought of as emanating originally merely from the will of this superior being as statutes, which, had he not first commanded them, would perhaps not be binding, for then they would not be ethical laws and the duty proper to them would not be the free duty of virtue but the coercive duty of law.

What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope?

Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law