Quotes About Ethics

fundamental values are not chosen from thin air based on the desires of executives; they are discovered within what already exists in an organization.

We've learned over the years that having a bad client is worse than having none.

an organization that has properly identified its values and adheres to them will naturally attract the right employees and repel the wrong ones.

The questions were, 'What did you accomplish?' 'What will you accomplish next?' 'How can you improve?'" "That's it?" "Not quite. The question on the back was, 'Are you embracing the values?

we like to believe that we do bad things because of the situations we are in, but somehow we easily come to the conclusion that others do bad things because they are predisposed to being bad. (Similarly

Se ci pensi, quand'è che cominciamo a fare delle distinzioni tra quel che è giusto e quel che è sbagliato? Quando qualcosa ci ferisce o minaccia di farlo.

You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

I do not say that all lawyers are bad, but I do maintain that the general tendency is bad: standing up in a court for whichever side has paid you, affecting warmth and conviction, and doing everything you can to win the case, whatever your private opinion may be, will soon dull any fine sense of honour. The mercenary soldier is not a valued creature, but at least he risks his life, whereas these men merely risk their next fee.

He has written about equality, the perfectibility of human nature, and the essential goodness of mankind for many years -- he judges others by himself, poor soul.

But is that not corruption, Jack? You were always very much against corruption when you were young, I mean younger.' 'So I am still: corruption in others is anathema to me. But you would scarcely credit the depths of turpitude I should descend to myself for a thousand a year;

I have noticed that some old men lose their sense of honour, and will cheerfully avow the strangest acts.

We are sailing under false colours,' whispered Stephen. 'Is not that very heinous?' 'Eh?' 'Wicked, morally indefensible?' 'Bless you, sir, we always do that, at sea. But we'll show our own at the last minute, you may be sure, before ever we fire a gun. That's justice. Look at him, now – he's throwing out a Danish waft, and as like as not he's no more a Dane than my grandam.

I do not say that all lawyers are bad, but I do maintain that the general tendency is bad: standing up in a court for whichever side has paid you, affecting warmth and conviction, and doing everything you can to win the case, whatever your private opinion may be, will soon dull any fine sense of honour. The mercenary soldier is not a valued creature, but at least he risks his life, whereas these men merely risk their next fee." -Stephen Maturin, The Reverse of the Medal

Now listen, Jack, will you? I am somewhat given to lying: my occasions require it from time to time. But I do not choose to have any man alive tell me of it.

But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either my country, right or wrong, which is infamous, or my country is always right, which is imbecile.

He was conscientious, he did his duty as he understood it; but he was no seaman.

Think of the firearms makers you wouldn't buy from, based on what you've "heard" about their product.

No animal suffers worse than a human being.

Cada arma que se fabrica, cada buque de guerra que se lanza al mar, cada cohete que se dispara significa, en ultima instancia, un robo a aquellos que pasan hambre y no son alimentados

Honesty and integrity are a "given" in most organizations, rarely tested on any but the most superficial levels.

Whoever invented the concept of fairness, anyway? Isn't everything easier if you simply get rid of the idea of justice altogether? You think the quantity of pleasure, the degree of suffering is constant among all men?

Fiction should always steer clear of political considerations.

God is neither good nor bad, neither moral nor immoral, he is unmoral;

if we constructed a man consisting of virtues only, would not that fellow be the most unbearable bore in the world, wearisome beyond description?