Quotes About Ethics

It's always the lesser of two evils. I don't see why there have to be any evils at all.

It didn't take long for ethics to be crushed by greed.

Funny, but the Bill of Life was supposed to protect the sanctity of life. Instead it just made life cheap.

You will take no more than you need, and waste nothing. People will attempt to buy your friendship. They will lavish things upon you. Accept nothing but the barest of human necessities.

WFor to put oneself above the law is a fundamental recipe for disaster.

Those who wish to have the job should not have it… and those who would most refuse to kill are the only ones who should.

I'm decent to everyone, Rowan pointed out. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a decent person.

I would never hurt one person's chances to help another--even if that other person was someone I cared about.

Why, wondered Citra, would there ever be a need for 400,000 scythes?

submission. Is that the world you want to live in?

We became unnatural the moment we conquered death

What must it be like to go through the motions of life, yet not be alive? Keaton knows he himself lives, because he has compassion for this poor unfortunate creature before him. A creature that is doomed to be nothing more than a collection of parts.

Now there was a supply of anonymous parts for anyone who wanted them. And even if you didn't want younger hands or brighter eyes, there were advertisements everywhere to convince you that you did. 'A new you from the inside out!' the billboards said. 'Add fifty years to your life.' Sonia shakes her head bitterly. They created want...and want turned to need...and unwinding became woven into the fabric of everything.

Of course, the bad scythes weren't all in the past. But instead of bad they were now called innovative and forward-thinking. Like the innovative bloodbaths of Scythe Goddard and his killer cronies.

How can you walk away," Connor finally says, "when they're about to overthrow the Cap-17 law?

I won't steal from her. I would never hurt one person's chances to help another—even if that other person was someone I cared about.

I often wonder if the bright benefit of belief outweighed the darkness it's abuse could bring.

Which was worse, Risa often wondered—to have tens of thousands of babies that no one wanted, or to silently make them go away before they were even born? On different days Risa had different answers.

power comes infected with the only disease left to us: the virus called human nature

No one says a word. It's like a moment of silence for the many kids lost to that great unwinding machine. The industry, as Sonia had called it. A mill of commerce trafficking in flesh, working outside the realm of ethics yet within the law and within the complete consent of society.

It means I chose wisely," Scythe Faraday told her. "If you do not cry yourself to sleep on a regular basis, you are not compassionate enough to be a scythe.

The end doesn't always justify the means, dear, she said. But sometimes it does. Wisdom is knowing the difference.

Sometimes justice needs obstructing when it ain't just.

What does a Nobel Prize in science mean when your lifesaving work has been transformed into an excuse to end life?