Quotes About Ethics

Men's indignation, it seems, is more exited by legal wrong than by violent wrong; the first looks like being cheated by an equal, the second like being compelled by a superior.

As I look at President Bush, I think he will ultimately be judged as a man of extremely high character.

Man became free when he recognized that he was subject to law.

The noble person uses things; the lesser man is used by things.

A man who goes forth to take the life of another whom he does not know must believe only one thing: that by his act he will change the course of history.

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

What I cannot live with may not bother another man's conscience. The result is that conscience will stand against conscience.

The greatest task before civilization at present is to make machines what they ought to be, the slaves, instead of the masters of men.

Law never made men a whit more just.

The just man having a firm grasp of his intentions, neither the heated passions of his fellow men ordaining something awful, nor a tyrant staring him in the face, will shake in his convictions.

Ten men have failed from defect in morals, where one has failed from defect in intellect.

Two things strike me dumb: the infinite starry heavens, and the sense of right and wrong in man.

[A ruler is merely] the trustee of the rights of other men and he must always stand in dread of having in some way violated these rights.

Animals... are there merely as a means to an end. That end is man.

This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or very honest men.

No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment.

The weak-minded man is the slave of his vices and the dupe of his virtues.

Every man is valued in this world as he shows by his conduct that he wishes to be valued.

The man who meditates is a depraved animal.

One of the greatest disservices you can do a man is to lend him money that he can't pay back.

Good and evil, right and wrong were invented for the ordinary average man, the inferior man, because he needs them.

The end of education is to see men made whole, both in competence and in conscience.

He who is less than just is less than man.

No man's ambitions (have) a right to stand in the way of performing a simple act of justice.