Quotes About Ethics

couldn't bear to eat anything that had once had parents.

It's so easy to do the wrong thing in life, don't you think? When we see a clear road to being a better person, we ought to take it.

Was Vianne really supposed to let Sophie starve to prove her loyalty to France?

we are only responsible for the things we do—or fail to do—ourselves.

Humans had a responsibility to do more than just protect themselves. In the face of evil, they were compelled to save each other.

There's danger in being principled in the midst of a war, but I believe that it's more dangerous not to be." "What do you mean?" He seemed to be searching for the words. "I mean that I would rather die knowing I tried to do the right thing than live knowing I had turned my back. Do you understand?

Was it possible that one sin could stain your soul forever? Or could one do enough good that a mistake of such magnitude could eventually be erased?

But we aren't defined by the names we carry or the religion we practice, or the nation whose flag flies over our heads. I know that now. We're defined by who we are in our hearts, who we choose to be on this earth.

I mean that I would rather die knowing I tried to do the right thing than live knowing I had turned my back. Do you understand?

Could they all be that evil? Or had they discovered a switch within themselves that allowed them to turn off their civility? Did they go home to their wives at night and simply flip the switches back on, become human once more?

Maybe the lie wasn't as wrong if it wasn't uttered aloud.

But if you ask what is the good of education in general, the answer is easy; that education makes good men, and that good men act nobly.

Some people believe that, having debauched themselves in one political party or front, they can, like the phoenix, arise from the ashes of the old in the feathers of a new party, front or movement as fresh as if nothing had happened. In fact, there is no such magic formula for longevity in political life other than the simple and the obvious: just honour your promises; do not corrupt and debauch your party. 1956

If a guest enters your house holding the severed head of your only son in his hand, you must still receive him, offer him food and drink and honour him as a guest.' That is a wise law. But sometimes it is very difficult to keep

Every man who invents something to kill other people easily, quickly and in as great numbers as possible is highly praised, he makes much money and a decoration is bestowed on him. That is good and right. War must be. But on the other hand the Europeans build many hospitals, and a man who during a war cures and feeds enemy soldiers is also praised and decorated

Asked in a class in the late 1970s at Harvard Business School about a hypothetical CEO who discovers his product could kill customers, young Jeff Skilling said he "would keep making and selling the product. My job as a businessman is to be a profit center and to maximize return to the shareholders. It's the government's job to step in if a product is dangerous.

moral calculus isn't reducible to actual calculus

Starting in the 1970s, the Friedman Doctrine and its extrapolations freed and encouraged businesspeople and the rich to go ahead and conform to the left-wing caricatures of them, to be rapacious and amoral without shame.

In 1910 President Theodore Roosevelt, a rich Republican, said that "corporate funds" used "for political purposes" were "one of the principal sources of corruption" and had "tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men whose chief object is to hold and increase their power.

He was saving innocents and serving truth. And in the final judgement, what is more important? The burdens we bear -- or the way we bear them?

It's okay to eat fish because they don't have any feelings.

It's okay to eat fish because they don't have any feelings.

Enron would keep its unearned windfall, generated solely because David Duncan didn't know what he was doing.

Kaminski plunged ahead. "I am not going to sign off on anything related to the Raptors," he said. "And I don't care if I'm fired for it." Buy raised a hand. "Whoa, wait a minute, I don't think you'll be fired," he replied quickly. "Now that Skilling's gone, we have a different mantra in Enron." He looked Kaminski in the eye. "We're expected to be honest", he said. p.525