Quotes About Ethics

But it is not for me to pass judgment on those prisoners who put their own people above everyone else. Who can throw a stone at a man who favours his friends under circumstances when, sooner or later, it is a question of life or death? No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.

The boundaries between groups overlapped and we must not try to simplify matters by saying that these men were angels and those were devils. Certainly, it was a considerable achievement for a guard or foreman to be kind to the prisoners in spite of all the camp's influences, and, on the other hand, the baseness of a prisoner who treated his own companions badly was exceptionally contemptible

Only slowly could these men be guided back to the commonplace truth that no one has the right to do wrong, not even if wrong has been done to them. We had to strive to lead them back to this truth, or the consequences would have been much worse than the loss of a few thousand stalks of oats.

it is not for me to pass judgment on those prisoners who put their own people above everyone else. Who can throw a stone at a man who favors his friends under circumstances when, sooner or later, it is a question of life or death? No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.

This emphasis on responsibleness is reflected in the categorical imperative of logotherapy, which is: "Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!

Sed omnia praeclara tam difficilia quam rara sunt (but everything great is just as difficult to realize as it is rare to find) reads the last sentence of the Ethics of Spinoza.

hay dos razas de hombres en el mundo y nada más que dos: la raza de los hombres decentes y la raza de los indecentes. Ambas se encuentran en todas partes y en todas las capas sociales. Ningún grupo se compone de hombres decentes o de hombres indecentes, así sin más ni más.

He was the only man I ever encountered in my whole life whom I would dare to call a Mephistophelean being, a satanic figure.

may remain brave, dignified and unselfish, or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal.

Frankl writes that a person "may remain brave, dignified and unselfish, or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal." He concedes that only a few prisoners of the Nazis were able to do the former, "but even one such example is sufficient proof that man's inner strength may raise him above his outward fate.

La libertad es la cara negativa de cualquier fenómeno humano, cuya cara positiva es la responsabilidad

So, let us be alert—alert in a twofold sense: Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.

In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.

never permit the patient to pass to the doctor the responsibility of judging.

What does Spinoza say in his Ethics?—"Affectus, qui passio est, desinit esse passio simulatque eius claram et distinctam formamus ideam." Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it. The prisoner who had lost faith in the future—his future—was doomed.

There was neither time nor desire to consider moral or ethical issues. Every man was controlled by one thought only: to keep himself alive for the family waiting for him at home, and to save his friends. With no hesitation, therefore, he would arrange for another prisoner, another "number," to take his place in the transport.

No one has the right to do wrong, not even if wrong has been done to them

I]n the last resort, man should not ask What is the meaning of my life? but should realize that he himself is being questioned. Life is putting its problems to him, and it is up to him to respond to these questions by being responsible; he can only answer to life by answering for his life.

Both I and my troubles became the object of an interesting psychoscientific study undertaken by myself. What does Spinoza say in his Ethics?—Affectus, qui passio est, desinit esse passio simulatque eius claram et distinctam formamus ideam. Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.

In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.

Con lo expuesto podemos concluir que hay dos razas de hombres en el mundo, solo dos: la de los hombres decentes y la de los indecentes. Ambas se mezclan en todas partes y en todas las capas sociales. Ningún grupo social se compone exclusivamente de hombres decentes o indecentes. En este sentido, ningún grupo es de «pura raza», y por ello había entre los guardias personas decentes.

I personally think that it is totally unjustified to hold one person responsible for the behavior of another person or a collective of persons.

These values, however, cannot be espoused and adopted by us on a conscious level—they are something that we are.

Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness