Quotes About Ethics

We still don't know how to put morality ahead of politics, science, and economics. We are still incapable of understanding that the only genuine backbone of our actions-if they are to be moral-is responsibility. Responsibility to something higher than my family, my country, my firm, my success.

I am not interested in why man commits evil; I want to know why he does good.

ÄŒlovÄ›k by se mÄ›l chovat tak, jak si myslí, že by se mÄ›li chovat vÅ¡ichni.

PÃ…â"¢irozenou nevýhodou demokracie je, že tÄ›m, kdo to s ní myslí poctivÄ›, nesmírnÄ› svazuje ruce, zatím co tÄ›m, kteÃ…â"¢í ji neberou vážnÄ›, umož?uje tém?? vÅ¡e.

How extraordinary it is that one feels most guilt about the sins one is unable to commit.

It isn't that there's no right and wrong here. There's no right.

A liberation movement is doomed once it stops to haggle over nuances of good and evil.

Kerran he joutuivat jättämään haavoittuneen, perääntyessään eräältä kukkulalta. Kun he valtasivat mäen takaisin, löysivät he miehen alusvaatteilleen riisuttuna, pistimen reikä kyljessä. Muuan Kariluodon konepistoolimies ampui siitä hyvästä ohimennen, kainalostaan tähdäten, kolme antautunutta. Kaksi päivää myöhemmin sama mies katkesi keskeltä kranaatin täysosumasta. Kuolema lakkasi olemasta moraalinen kysymys

A society gets the criminals it deserves.

It's a piece of cake, being a lawyer or a doctor or a computer systems analyst or an accountant. Libraries are full of books telling you how to do it. The only textbooks for private eyes are on fiction shelves, and I don't remember ever reading one that told me how to interrogate an eight-year old without feeling like I was auditioning for the Gestapo.

Ethics is not definable, is not implementable, because it is not conscious; it involves not only our thinking, but also our feeling.

A man must live with sin, or he is no man

In the olden days, at least, they knew when to stop. " "Now they don't any more. In the olden days they had some shame as well." "Yes, now they ain't got no shame either.

In the old days conscience was very important. If someone tried living without one, it was obvious right away, everyone lived an open life then. There were all kinds of people then, too. Some would have been happy to follow their conscience, but what do you do if you're born without one? You can't buy it with money.

In the old days, you could see it: whether a person had it or not. Those who had it were conscientious, those without it were conscienceless. And now only the devil can tell, everything is mixed up in one pile. They bring it up needlessly with every word, mauling the poor thing so much it's barely alive.

One need not fear the devil, but rather the perverse tendencies in oneself!

si un pueblo alcanza un gran nivel de civilización se desarrolla al mismo tiempo también un cierto grado de corrupción.

The Saturday Review is not a church paper. It's a secular paper. But, the other day, it said, "The desensitization of 20th century man is more than a danger to the general safety. There are some things we have no business ever getting used to.

Whenever we engage in consumption or production patterns which take more than we need, we are engaging in violence.

Staying home is an ecological imperative, an ethical imperative. It is also a joyful option. It is the practice of oikonomia as the art of living. It is earth democracy in action, cultivating and expanding the freedoms of all beings.

Simplicity and nonviolence are the basis of an economy of wellbeing, and such an economy must be localised.

A heart needs only its own voice to do what is right.

Truth is the old way. Truth dates back to the time when your word was your bond, and you didn't need papers in a language you couldn't understand to compel you to act honestly.

When there's a single thief, it's robbery. When there are a thousand thieves, it's taxation.