Quotes About Ethics

Man exists authentically only when he is not driven, but, rather, responsible.

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

Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.

Keegi ei tohiks kohut mõista enne, kui ta on endale kõigutamatu aususega vastanud, kas ta ise oleks säärases olukorras kindlalt toiminud teisiti.

There are two races of men in this world, but only these two—the "race" of the decent man and the "race" of the indecent man.

Wouldn't it suffice just to refer to decent people? It is true that they form a minority. More than that, they always will remain a minority. And yet I see therein the very challenge to join the minority. For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best. 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.

Be the master of your will and the servant of your conscience

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.

Freedom, however, is not the last word. 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.

What matters is not the features of our character or the drives and instincts per se, but rather the stand we take toward them. And the capacity to take such a stand is what makes us human beings.

U ?oveku se kriju obe mogu?nosti: svinja i svetac. Šta ?e neko ostvariti zavisi od njegovih odluka, a ne od uslova. Viktor Frankl: Zašto se niste ubili

Sé dueño de tu voluntad y siervo de tu conciencia»

El ateo preferiría que se fuera honesto por uno mismo, por el bien de otro o por la bondad intrínseca de la cosa, y no para ir al cielo.

We don't need a press like the Americans have, Ahmed. One that spews lies and distortions twenty-four hours a day in search of profits.

In the America of today, values and principles had been replaced by partisanship.

Anyone with honor and integrity was worn down and spit out by the political machine of party politics.

The noblest motive is the public good.

The signs of the old flame, I know them well. I pray that the earth gape deep enough to take me down or the almighty Father blast me with one bolt to the shades, the pale, glimmering shades in hell, the pit of night, before I dishonor you, my conscience, break your laws.

hae tibi erunt artes; pacisque imponere morem, parcere subiectis, et debellare superbos.

She thought there were no Gods; no one was to blame; and so she evolved this atheist's religion of doing good for the sake of goodness.

My notion's to think of the human beings first and let the abstract ideas take care of themselves.

It is impossible for human beings, constituted as they are, both to fight and to have ideals.

the sort of fish that a good fisherman puts back into the water

Later she wasn't so positive perhaps; she thought there were no Gods; no one was to blame; and so she evolved this atheist's religion of doing good for the sake of goodness.