Quotes About Ethics

I believe fundamental honesty is the keystone of business.

Be the master of your will and the slave of your conscience.

A religion can no more afford to degrade its Devil than to degrade its God.

It is becoming clear that the old platitudes can no longer be maintained, and that if we wish to improve our morals we must first improve our knowledge.

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

Every society has the criminals that it deserves.

In the past, humans hesitated when they took lives, even non-human lives. But society had changed, and they no longer felt that way. As humans grew stronger, I think that we became quite arrogant, losing the sorrow of 'we have no other choice.' I think that in the essence of human civilization, we have the desire to become rich without limit, by taking the lives of other creatures.

Beauvoir lent Maheu a recent English novel she had enjoyed, The Green Hat , by Michael Arlen. She admired its independent heroine, Iris Storm. Maheu did not. 'I have no liking for women of easy virtue,' he told her. 'Much as I like a woman to please me, I find it impossible to respect any woman I've had.' Beauvoir was indignant. 'One does not have an Iris Storm!

If a woman was not free, it could be for two reasons. Her lack of freedom could be inflicted, in which case it constituted oppression. Or it could be chosen, in which case it represented a moral fault. In both cases, it was absolute evil.

So our rule is not to avoid a place where there is drinking if we have a legitimate reason for being there… Go or stay away, whichever seems best. But be sure you are on solid spiritual ground before you start and that your motive in going is thoroughly good." 6

all things that seem good and evil are the opposite ends of one line, and it is difficult to say where evil ends and good begins, for these are comparative terms. A lesser good would seem evil when compared with a greater good, and the lesser evil in comparison with the greater evil would appear good. If there were no evil, good would not have been valued. Without injustice, justice would not have been appreciated. Therefore the whole of life's joy is expressed in duality.

If a man through his life became like an angel he would accomplish very little; the accomplishment which is most desirable for man is to fulfill the obligations of human life.

The object attained by both good and bad methods is the same, but the way one tries to attain it turns the object into right or wrong. It is not the object which is wrong, it is the way one adopts to attain it.

Christians ought to be troubled by the postmodern rejection of moral absolutes. But in responding, the first task is to get our own house in order.

The general idea of universal moral norms is ancient, widespread, and endorsed by practically every moral authority up until late in the modern period.

Industrialists, who turn the Amazonian jungle into useless tundra or cement over half the planet, are not, for some reason, machine-gunned en masse, nor captured and exhibited, nor do they have their teeth extracted and carved into little men.

She should have been scandalized and horrified that he had kissed her so, touched her so, but she wasn't. It was simply what came between the two of them. There had been something just and sweet and right about it, and she refused to be ashamed of it.

Most religions teach us to be good people. It's only what men can do with religions that make them bad.

Anything evil that you do will come back at you.

Distant shareholders have no understanding of the damage caused by their investments.

He explained that ethics are the principles or rules for how we act in the world... 'The thing is, it doesn't matter whether or not (she) had it coming... What does matter is your behavior, not hers. Your ethics, not hers. The way you conduct yourself, not the way she conducts herself... We all must learn to act, not react.

The kind man feeds his beast before sitting down to dinner.

A rich man has no need of character.

You have to know what you stand for, not just what you stand against.