Quotes About Ethics

Presto o tardi, tutti dobbiamo morire. Quindi non si vive per prolungare la propria esistenza. Si vive per morire in maniera degna.

La moral no es más que ese famoso círculo de tiza alrededor de la gallina: sólo encierra a los que creen en ella

La moralidad es un servicio doméstico, no una divinidad. Conviene usarla, pero no debe mandar

Las mentes chatas acostumbran a estimar a un hombre según su posición económica. Yo sigo el camino opuesto y estimo la posición económica según el hombre

He was strict and hard and had perfectly clear and definite ideas about duty, where the others were concerned. For oneself one can always find circumstances that alter cases

We are more inclined to regret our virtues than our vices; but only the very honest will admit this.

It's ridiculous the way everyone acts like killing a king is going to make someone better at being one," Vivi says. "Imagine if, in the mortal world, a lawyer passed the bar by killing another lawyer.

I can learn to live with guilt. I don't care about being good.

Isn't every hero aware of all the terrible reason they did those good deeds?" Aware of every mistake they ever made and how good people got hurt because of their decisions? Don't they recall the moments they weren't heroic at all? The moments where their heroism led to more deaths than deliberate villainy ever could?

But now I wonder--what if everyone is pretty much the same and it's just a thousand small choices that add up to the person you are? No good or evil, no black and white, no inner demons or angels whispering the right answers in our ears like it's some cosmic SAT test. Just us, hour by hour, minute by minute, day by day, making the best choices we can. The thought is horrifying. If that's true, then there's no right choice. There's only choice.

Stories can justify anything. It doesn't matter if the boy with the heart of stone is a hero or a villain; it doesn't matter if he got what he deserved or if he didn't. No one can reward him or punish him, save the storyteller.

I am no murderer," says Cardan, surprising me. I would not have thought that was something to be proud of.

I don't know," Call said. He was starting to worry that there weren't any good guys. Just people with longer or shorter Evil Overlord lists.

I did it to get what I want. Maybe I should regret that, but I can't. Sometimes you do the bad thing and hope for the good result.

I'm the best kind of thief, the kind that leaves behind items equal in value to those he's stolen.

I don't imagine myself back in a life like theirs; what I imagine is going over there and scaring them until they cry. I would never, of course. I mean, I don't think I would.

Stories can justify anything. It doesn't matter if the boy with the heart of stone is a hero or a villain; it doesn't matter if he got what he deserved or if he didn't. No one can reward him or punish him, save the storyteller. And she's the one who shaded the tale so we'd feel whatever way we feel about him in the first place.

I wonder if there's a limit to what I will let them do, if there is something that would make me fight back, even if it dooms me. If there is, that makes me a fool. But maybe if there isn't, that makes me a monster.

The more they get away with, the more they believe they're entitled to have.

If you were going to get someone's soul, Call thought, it would be nice if you also got their superior penmanship.

I may be rotten, but my one virtue is that I'm not a killer. I wanted to frighten you, but I never wanted you dead. I never wanted anyone dead.

Have you ever heard that virtue is its own reward?' Cardan says pleasantly. 'That's because there's no other reward in it.

So long as there really was nothing wrong with his soul.

Neither loyalty nor love should be compelled.