Quotes About Ethics

Magellan found himself in a difficult position. He could not bring himself to condemn a priest—even a disloyal priest—to death.

Politics may one day be found to be so vulgar as to be described, along with all party and daily journalism, under the heading: 'Prostitution of the Intel lect'.

Heaven and earth are inhumane; they view the myriad creatures as straw dogs.

The word 'experienced' often refers to someone who's gotten away with doing the wrong thing more frequently than you have.

Suicide is possible, but not probable hanging, I trust, is even more unlikely for I hope that, by the time I die, my countrymen will have become civilised enough to abolish capital punishment.

If two wrongs don't make a right, try three.

Religion which lays so many restraints upon us, is a troublesome companion to those who will lay no restraints upon themselves.

First, whenever a man talks loudly against religion, always suspect that it is not his reason, but his passions, which have got the better of his creed. A bad life and a good belief are disagreeable and troublesome neighbors, and where they separate, depend upon it, 'Tis for no other cause but quietness sake.

Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners

Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything.

Keyholes are the occasions of more sin and wickedness, than all other holes in this world put together.

I only knew that there was a certain rightness in life--the feeling you got when you did something the way you knew you should.

William Graham Sumner, "That It Is Not Wicked to Be Rich," in What Social Classes Owe Each Other, 1884

Every bad person is a little good. And every good person is a little bad.

Professionalism is a frame of mind, not a paycheck.

I don't eat chicken abortions!

Surely one zoo in the world should have the courage to draw the ultimate conclusion about our ancestry? A cage with Homo Sapiens in all its varying forms, perhaps then we would understand ourselves better. The question of course is whether the other animals would approve of it.

abortions were an action of last resort, when there was no better option.

what could be less satisfying than stealing from someone so endowed that they never even noticed what you'd taken?

when personally affected by the issues, even idealists often end up making selfish choices with far-reaching effects. It's human nature,

He wonders who decided which books were too dangerous to keep, and who it was that had to hunt down and collect the condemned books, like an executioner, ferrying them to their doom.

Fair doesn't always mean right.

world without PACT; it is as axiomatic as gravity, or Thou shalt not kill. He didn't understand

Life isn't fair, or fair doesn't always mean right.