Quotes About Ethics

It is fairly obvious that those who are in favour of the death penalty have more affinity with assassins than those who are not.

Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty.

The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly, I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.

Much as he is opposed to lawbreaking, he is not bigoted about it.

Crime, like virtue, has its degrees.

Many commit the same crimes with a very different result. One bears a cross for his crime; another a crown.

One crime is everything; two nothing.

Whoever profits by the crime is guilty of it.

Deceive not thy physician, confessor, nor lawyer.

When one bases his life on principle, 99 percent of his decisions are already made.

Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may.

I get a little angry about this highhanded scrapping of the look of things. What else have we to go by? How else can the average person form an opinion of a girl's sense of values or even of her chastity except by the looks of her conduct?

The difference between weakness and wickedness is much less than people suppose; and the consequences are nearly always the same.

You must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act.

I couldn't claim that I have never felt the urge to explore evil, but when you descend into hell you have to be very careful.

Of two evils, choose the less.

Of two evils, choose the prettier.

Where bad's the best, bad must be the choice.

It is the greatest good to the greatest number which is the measure of right and wrong.

We may draw good outof evil; we must not do evil, that good may come.

Temperance is the control of all the functions of our bodies. The man who refuses liquor, goes in for apple pie and develops a paunch, is no ethical leader for me.

The habit of using ardent spirits by men in office has occasioned more injury to the public, and more trouble to me, than all other causes. Were I to commence my administration again, the first question I would ask respecting a candidate for office would be, Does he use ardent spirits?

It is thy duty oftentimes to do what thou wouldst not; thy duty, too, to leave undone that thou wouldst do.

No personal consideration should stand in the way of performing a public duty.