Quotes About Ethics

One is not always happy when one is good; but one is always good when one is happy.

And self-sacrifice is a thing that should be put down by law.  It is so demoralising to the people for whom one sacrifices oneself.  They always go to the bad.

The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to some one else, if she is plain.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all. The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass. The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass. The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium

I don't propose to discuss politics, sociology, or metaphysics with you. I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.

The basis of every scandal is an immoral certainty

I wish I had, for as sure as there is a God in heaven, if he ever does you any wrong, I shall kill him.

It is not good for one's morals to see bad acting.

Morality does not help me. I am a born antinomian...I see that there is nothing wrong in what one does. I see that there is something wrong in what one becomes.

My duty as a gentleman has never interfered with my pleasures in the smallest degree.

But do let us go. Dorian, you must not stay here any longer. It is not good for one's morals to see bad acting.

Che cosa è un cinico? Un uomo che sa il prezzo di tutte le cose e il valore di nessuna.

La experiencia no tiene ningún valor ético. Es simplemente el nombre que los hombres dan a sus errores

Sumienie i tchórzostwo to to samo. Sumienie to po prostu nazwa firmowa. Nic wiÄ™cej.

bardziej lubi? ludzi ni? zasady, a ponad wszystko lubi? ludzi bez ?adnych zasad.

Todo delito es vulgar, de la misma manera que todo lo vulgar es delito.

Znios? brutaln? si??, ale brutalny rozs?dek jest absolutnie nie do zniesienia. Pos?ugiwanie si? nim jest nie fair. To cios poni?ej intelektu

are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

El vicio supremo es la superficialidad.

However, I don't propose to discuss politics, sociology, or metaphysics with you. I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.

want to be good. I can't bear the idea of my soul being hideous.

Dorian to Harry 'Don't, Harry. The soul is a terrible reality. It can be bought, and sold, and bartered away. It can be poisoned, or made perfect. There is a soul in each one of us. I know it.

We praise the banker that we may overdraw our account, and find good qualities in the highwayman in the hope that he may spare our pockets. I mean everything that I have said.

Even a colour-sense is more important, in the development of the individual, than a sense of right and wrong. Aesthetics, in fact, are to Ethics in the sphere of conscious civilisation, what, in the sphere of the external world, sexual is to natural selection. Ethics, like natural selection, make existence possible. Aesthetics, like sexual selection, make life lovely and wonderful, fill it with new forms, and give it progress, and variety and change.