Quotes About Ethics

If there is such a thing as good leadership, it is to give a good example. I have to do so for all the Ikea employees.

It is morally and legally okay to show genuine concern for other people.

there are some values worth standing up for, regardless of shifting cultural mores.

Leaders who value good outcomes more than assertion of their own authority understand that serious errors are avoided by the use of Intelligent Disobedience.

once all voices have been heard and a decision is made by those with the authority to make it, if no core values are being violated, supporting that decision is the correct mode.

Levinas's thought emphasizes not the primacy of the self, but the primacy of the other—that is, other human beings. He taught that the self comes into existence

that old Mrs. Bishop was lacking in the qualities that make a good mother. And saying it that way makes her sound a good deal better than she really was.

He chuckled as he realized how he'd rationalized betrayal into gallantry. Damn, he was a good lawyer. But

Taking a life diminishes the taker. - Kadar den Arnaud

How do you keep to some idealistic set of rules when your opponent has no rules?

Being good is just a matter of temperament in the end.

The cry of equality pulls everyone down.

Moralistic is not moral. And as for truth -- well, it's like brown -- it's not in the spectrum. Truth is so generic.

One should go easy on smashing other people's lies. Better to concentrate on one's own.

Si un être était capable de mentir aux autres et de les rouler comme il peut se mentir à soi-même, il ferait une sensationnelle carrière d'escroc.

Times are horrible. Nobody has any money and there is an immoral spirit in the air — just as you're getting ready to hit on someone for some cash, they're already hitting on you!

But I could just as well turn into a Hulla--and if I became a star, I might actually be a worse person than a Hulla, who was good. Perhaps glamour isn't all that important after all.

Not that there's anything going on between him and me. As I've been telling Therese, who also works at the office and is my friend: "There has to be some love involved. Otherwise, what about our ideals?

The true humanist maintains a just balance between sympathy and selection.

A man needs to look, not down, but up to standards set so much above his ordinary self as to make him feel that he is himself "spiritually" the underdog. Anyone who thus looks up has some chance of becoming worthy to be looked up to in turn.

The world, or at least a few decent portions of it, could still be moved by the sight of thousands of victims, perhaps because it had not yet become hardened to the sight of millions.

People need religion. It's a vehicle for a moral tradition. A crucial role. Nothing can take its place.

If you believe that no one was ever corrupted by a book, you have also to believe that no one was ever improved by a book.

Power breeds responsibilities […] To dodge or disclaim these responsibilities is one form of the abuse of power.