Quotes About Ethics

Reason and Justice tell me that there is more love of man in electricity and steam, than in chastity and refusal to eat meat.

I'm a good person. I eat pretty well. I work out. I go to bookstores. I save people. For a living. I have better things to do than get hauled in for a medical checkup every week. Have I complained the last few months? Constantly. Was I a good patient? No. What can I say? When your primary care provider is a shadowy government agency, you have to be your own medical advocate.

Sin is rarely without complication

Have you ever considered using your medical degree for good?" "I have a lot of student loans.

Without temptation, there was no virtue in resistance.

God and angels don't get paid even though theirs is some of the most important work around. Ditto for volunteers.

Bad things happen when good people do nothing.

When people cheat in any arena, they diminish themselves-they threaten their own self-esteem and their relationships with others by undermining the trust they have in their ability to succeed and in their ability to be true.

But the reality is we often become our kindest, most ethical selves only by seeing what it feels like to be a selfish jackass first.

We like to pretend that our generous impulses come naturally. But the reality is we often become our kindest, most ethical selves only by seeing what it feels like to be a selfish jackass first. It's the reason... we have to get burned before we understand the power of fire; the reason our most meaningful relationships are so often those that continued beyond the very juncture at which they came the closest to ending.

had to change. I had to change was the thought that drove me in those months of planning. Not into a different person, but back to the person I used to be—strong and responsible, clear-eyed and driven, ethical and good.

we often become our kindest, most ethical selves only by seeing what it feels like to be selfish assholes first.

But an ethical and evolved life also entails telling the truth about oneself and living out that truth.

Saying it's hard is ultimately a justification to do whatever seems like the easiest thing to do -- have the affair, stay at that horrible job, end a friendship over a slight, keep loving someone who treats you terribly.

I had to change. I had to change was the thought that drove me in those months of planning. Not into a different person, but back to the person I used to be—strong and responsible, clear-eyed and driven, ethical and good.

To use our individual good or bad luck as a litmus test to determine whether or not God exists constructs an illogical dichotomy that reduces our capacity for true compassion. It implies a pious quid pro quo that defies history, reality, ethics, and reason. It fails to acknowledge that the other half of rising—the very half that makes rising necessary—is having first been nailed to the cross.

But transformation often demands that we separate our emotional responses from our rational minds. Your rational mind knows that men leave their wives for younger women all the time. Your emotional response is you can't believe your father did. Your rational mind knows that it's hard for even strong, ethical people to sustain a long-term monogamy. Your emotional response is you're shocked your own parents failed to do so.

we often become our kindest, most ethical selves only by seeing what it feels like to be a selfish jackass first.

We like to pretend that our generous impulses come naturally. But the reality is we often become our kindest, most ethical selves only by seeing what it feels like to be a selfish jackass first.

Organizations endure, however, in proportion to the breadth of the morality by which they are governed. Thus the endurance of organization depends upon the quality of leadership and that quality derives from the breadth of the morality upon which it rests.

It's just an idea. There's no harm in ideas." "I ain't so sure of that," said Eddie Karl. "That Hitler had ideas.

Allison was a born conformer, a person who believed in doing the "right thing," being responsible, not making too many waves.

If I hadn't stopped that guy, everybody woulda just let him go. Nobody wants to put their ass on the line for anything, you know?

I love her and we make each other happy. But if our happiness makes so many people unhappy, is it the right thing to do?