Quotes About Ethics

Society can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks.

knew as well as any American that America was shipping oil and scrap iron to Tokyo to bomb Chinese women and children.

You say [slavery] is wrong; but don't you constantly object to anybody else saying so? Do you not constantly argue that this is not the right place to oppose it? You say it must not be opposed in the free States, because slavery is not there; it must not be opposed in the slave States, because it is there; it must not be opposed in politics, because that will make a fuss; it must not be opposed in the pulpit, because it is not religion. Then where is the place to oppose it?

By the fruit the tree is to be known. An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit.

Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature -- opposition to it, in his love of justice.

The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject any thing, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good. There are few things wholly evil, or wholly good. Almost every thing, especially of governmental policy, is an inseparable compound of the two; so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded.

The slave-breeders and slave-traders are a small, odious, and detested class among you; and yet in politics they dictate the course of all of you, and are as completely your masters as you are the master of your own negroes.

Once admit the position that a man rightfully holds another man as property on one side of the line, and you must, when it suits his convenience to come to the other side, admit that he has the same right to hold his property there.

Judge Douglas declares that if any community wants slavery they have a right to have it. He can say that logically, if he says that there is no wrong in slavery; but if you admit that there is a wrong in it, he cannot logically say that anybody has a right to do wrong.

It strikes me there is some difference between holding a man responsible for an act which he has not done, and holding him responsible for an act that he has done.

I don't want to be unjustly accused of dealing illiberally or unfairly with an adversary, either in court, or in a political canvass, or anywhere else. I would despise myself if I supposed myself ready to deal less liberally with an adversary than I was willing to be treated myself.

Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master.

Hence he did not confuse manners with morals.

It was always about abortion. (185)

A bird killed in the name of human power is in truth a loss of power from the world, not an addition to it.

the important question is not whether all rocks are alive but whether specific humans relate appropriately (respectfully) with specific rocks

To be a hero you always have to betray something or someone.

Everyone oohed and wanted details, but I kept it PG 13, not that there were any R moments. Josh wasn't that kind of guy. In fact, he had such a high code of ethics, I found myself watching what I said around him. There were things he didn't need to know.

Everyone that watches "Deep Throat" is watching me being raped.

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, the whole world would be vegetarian.

In both London and Washington, and at the UN in New York, there were politicians and civil servants who took decisions that cost the lives of an incalculable number of people. They should bear full responsibility for those decisions.

Fight hard and fight well. But know that a quest for justice without wisdom and compassion can all too easily become cruelty.

But you do choose not to reveal all the facts, which the way I see it is another form of lying." She sipped her wine.

Our ideals, laws and customs should be based on the proposition that each generation, in turn, becomes the custodian rather than the absolute owner of our resources and each generation has the obligation to pass this inheritance on to the future.