Quotes About Ethics

One man's wickedness may easily become all men's curse.

For it would have been better that man should have been born dumb, nay, void of all reason, rather than that he should employ the gifts of Providence to the destruction of his neighbor.

The only infallible rule we know is, that the man who is always talking about being a gentleman never is one.

The sky and the earth and the waters and the things that are in them, the fishes, and the birds and the trees are not evil. All these are good; it is evil men who make this evil world.

Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God.

Every man prefers virtue, when there is not some strong incitement to transgress its precepts.

Among many parallels which men of imagination have drawn between the natural and moral state of the world, it has been observed that happiness as well as virtue consists in mediocrity.

Honest men are the soft easy cushions on which knaves repose and fatten.

Conscience is a man's compass, and though the needle sometimes deviates, though one often perceives irregularities in directing one's course by it, still one must try to follow its direction.

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.

Virtuous men alone possess friends.

An honest man is respected by all parties.

Good men are the stars, the planets of the ages wherein they live, and illustrate the times.

The rich man who gives, steals twice over. First he steals the money and then the hearts of men.

We all know we're going to die; what's important is the kind of men and women we are in the face of this.

I am a man of principle. I will stick by my principles. I will tell the truth no matter where the chips fall.

Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality.

A man of integrity will never listen to any reason against conscience.

There is but one way I know of conversing safely with all men; that is, not by concealing what we say or do, but by saying or doing nothing that deserves to be concealed.

But what is happiness? If we consider what the function of man is, we find that happiness is a virtuous activity of the soul.

The science that studies the supreme good for man is politics.

Wicked me obey from fear; good men,from love.

A man is his own best friend; therefore he ought to love himself best.

Wicked men obey for fear, but the good for love.