Quotes About Ethics

When some English moralists write about the importance of having character, they appear to mean only the importance of having a dull character.

Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable.

we have the idea that there are big sins and little sins. But the book of James tells us that, 'Whosoever shall keep the whole law yet offend in one point, the same is guilty of all.' Do you see what that means? We think that murder is a much worse sin than gossip or telling a lie, but according to God, they are both offenses against His law, and we become offenders whether we commit murder or adultery

Be careful in dealing with a man who cares nothing for sensual pleasures, nothing for comfort or praise or promotion, but is simply determined to do what he believes to be right. He is a dangerous and uncomfortable enemy because his body which you can always conquer gives you so little purchase over his soul.

Probably throughout history the worst things ever done in the world on a large scale by decent people have been done in the name of religion, and I do not think that has entirely ceased to be true at the present day.

In all secrets there is a kind of guilt, however beautiful or joyful they may be, or for what good end they may be set to serve. Secrecy means evasion, and evasion means a problem to the moral mind.

He knew the lie of silence to be as evil as the lie of speech.

There's no credit in not doing what you don't want to do. There's no virtue in not falling, when you're not tempted.

Every man should have laws of his own, I should think; commandments of his own, for every man has a different set of circumstances wherein to work - or worry.

She belongs to a race of delightful women, who never do any harm, whom everybody calls good, and who are very severe on those who do not pretend to be good.

But when a person has done the right thing, we cannot then say that he knew how to do the wrong thing, or that he was competent to make mistakes.

An accused person may admit or deny that he did something, or that he did it on purpose, but he never admits or denies having willed.

If you laugh at it, you're stepping over the corpses. And if you work with him, well, it's worse.

The Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors offered him a six-figure sum in recognition of his pioneering wartime inventions. Jefferis was gratified but turned it down. 'His Edwardian principals of right and wrong were very strong,' said his son John.16 He did not believe he should profit from having helped to defeat Hitler.

Enterramos o machado de guerra a propósito da ditadura do proletariado e da Revolução, mas novos antagonismos surgiram: pena de morte, imigração, prisôes, aborto, droga, eutanásia, energia nuclear, meios de procriação, proteção social, seleção, questões sobre as quais é inútil esperar poder encontrar qualquer unanimidade; nossas sociedades estão entregues ao dilaceramento das perspectivas.

My mother had always told her kids: if you're about to do something, and you want to know if it's a bad idea, imagine seeing it printed in the paper for all the world to see.

I am longing to show him my love, but not by doing what is wrong

When we stop drawing a line between moral failings and evil, between the very things that make us human and those that take away our humanity—when we lose sight of mercy and mistake it for weakness, all is lost.

I think the American government is now the most corrupt government in the world.

In any case, if they don't do it to you, they do it to someone else...if you let them do it to others, you become an accomplice, intentionally or not

La experiencia me enseñó que, ciertamente, se puede ganar una guerra con cualquier clase de personas, pero no se puede construir un sistema justo, con valores éticos, si quienes se proponen hacerlo carecen de ellos o sacrifican esos mismos valores en el camino.

Quizás esté mal, Eva, pero el Mal también es parte del conocimiento.

In Guerra, in che cosa differivano gli uomini in campo? Che differenza c'era, in fondo, tra due uomini armati di fucile, disposti a uccidersi in difesa di ragioni che entrambi consideravano giuste?

there is no head of state in the world today who is not in virtuality a criminal . Those who shoulder the dreary mantle of sovereignty know that their turn may come to be branded a criminal by their colleagues. We certainly will not be the ones to complain. For the sovereign, who freely consented to donning the executioner's clothes, is now finally manifesting his originary kinship with the criminal.