Quotes About Ethics

Conscience whispers, but interest screams aloud.

It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.

We shall never be able to effect physical disarmament until we have succeeded in effecting moral disarmament.

Knowledge cannot be pursued without morality.

Mr. President, I have blood on my hands.

When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.

37. On this point, and the whole paragraph, see especially Oliver O'Donovan, The Ways of Judgment (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005).

And, once again, this contextualizing of Christian virtue within the redemptive eschatological framework underscores the great revolution in virtue ethics that took place from Paul onward, or as Paul would say, from the cross of Jesus Christ onward: the dethroning of pride and the enthroning of humility and gratitude.

To enter the Buddha Way is to stop discriminating between good and evil and to cast aside the mind that says this is good and that is bad.

We rise in popwer and make a difference in the world due to what is best about human nature, but we fall from power due to what is worst.

Only he deserves power who every day justifies it.

A task becomes a duty from the moment you suspect it to be an essential part of that integrity which alone entitles a man to assume responsibility.

I believe that we should die with decency so that at least decency will survive.

It is easy to be nice, even to an enemy from lack of character.

Likewise, education can direct people toward good or evil ends. When education is based on a fundamentally distorted worldview, the results are horrific.

From ancient times, those systems of thought that merit the name 'philosophy' or 'religion' have developed an all-embracing worldview with at least two dimensions. The first is a theory of value, or ethics, that relates to how human life should be lived. The second is a theory of being, or ontology, which posits the structure of existence, or of the world.

It is impossible to build one's happiness on the unhappiness of others.

The world's repeatedly saved by people whether right or wrong just goddammit not wanting to get into it.

She knew that people generally behaved only as well as they had to.

Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of Universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life.

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.

If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.

This new concept ought to be elaborated alongside the religions, in such a way that all people of good will could adhere to it. We ought to promote this concept with the help of scientists. It could lead us to what we are looking for.