Quotes About Ethics

I have come to the conclusion that the true benefit of religion is not to make people virtuous, which is impossible, but to put a sort of bridle on the worst excesses of their viciousness.

The horror of the Hitler Experience was not that he perpetrated it on the human race, but that the human race allowed him to. The astonishment is not only that a Hitler came along, but also that so many others went along.

With you, it seems to be merely a question of time. The legality of self-destruction—the "rightness" or "wrongness" of it—seems to have much to do with how quickly the deed is done, as well as who is doing it. The faster the death, the more "wrong" it seems to be. The slower the death, the more it slips into "okayness.

The horror of the Hitler Experience was not that he perpetrated it on the human race, but that the human race allowed him to.

ask yourself a simple question: What would happen if everyone did it? This is a very easy measure, and a very accurate one. If everyone did a thing, and the result was of ultimate benefit to the human race, then that is "evolved." If everyone did it and it brought disaster to the human race, then that is not a very "elevated" thing to recommend. Do you agree?

In what you have called your nonbarbarian societies, children (and wives, and husbands, for that matter) are thought of as property, as personal possessions, and child-bearers must therefore become child-raisers, because they must take care of what they "own.

It is no more immoral to kill yourself quickly than it is to kill yourself slowly.

If acting irresponsibly, if behaving in a way which you know might damage others or cause hardship or pain, is what makes you "feel good," then you have not evolved very far.

If a thing is obviously right, do it. But remember to exercise extreme judgment regarding what you call "right" and "wrong." A thing is only right or wrong because you say it is. A thing is not right or wrong intrinsically.

Rightness" or "wrongness" is not an intrinsic condition, it is a subjective judgment in a personal value system. By your subjective judgments do you create your Self—by your personal values do you determine and demonstrate Who You Are.

Užas iskustva sa Hitlerom nije u tome da je on to namerno u?inio ljudskoj rasi, nego u tome da muje to ljudska rasa omogu?ila i dopustila. Za?u?uju?e je ne samo to da se pojavio jedan Hitler, nego to što su milioni pošli s njim. Sramotno je ne samo to što je Hitler pobio milione Jevreja, nego i to što su milioni Jevreja poginuli prije nego što je Hitler zaustavljen

You can _know_ yourself to be generous, but unless you _do_ something which displays generosity, you have nothing but a concept. You can _know_ yourself to be kind, but unless you _do_ someone a kindness, you have nothing but an idea about yourself.

Misfortune is no excuse for cruelty.

I don't like to spend money. Every time I spend it, I feel as if I'm being raped.

There are times, believe you me, when to lie would be a sin and to tell the truth would be a disaster.

When students cheat on exams it's because our school system values grades more than students value learning.

Consider this pronouncement, inscribed on an Assyrian tablet circa 2800 B.C.: Our earth is degenerate these days . . . bribery and corruption abound, children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and the end of the world is evidently approaching.

Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

we shouldn't reshape our science just to avoid confusing the public

the Disney pantheon that if you wear clothes, you can own other animals who do not

Are Robots "Them" or "Us"?

Samuel L. Lewis] The hypocrisy of perfumed words only adds to the criminality of unwise acts.

Could hell be a place where there is no self-respect? A place where people have no pride in their own existence or behavior, and thus would have none for anyone or anything else?

Whoever destroys a single life is as guilty as though he had destroyed the entire world; and whoever rescues a single life earns as much merit as though he had rescued the entire world.