Quotes About Ethics

Only religion can lead to such evil.

We must have ideals and try to live up to them, even if we never quite succeed. Life would be a sorry business without them. With them it's grand and great.

Ethan: "You think I'm a hero?" Beth: "Yes." Ethan: "But lousy husband material?" Like that really mattered to him. Beth: "Don't sweat it. So was Superman.

perché si de' punir donna o biasmare che con uno o più d'uno abbia commesso quel che l'uom fa con quante n'ha appetito e lodato ne va, non che impunito? Sono fatti in questa legge disuguale Veramente alle donne espressi torti

The conception of the morally perfect being is no merely theoretical, inert conception, but a practical one, calling me to action, to imitation, throwing me into strife, into disunion with myself; for while it proclaims to me what I ought to be, it also tells me to my face, without any flattery, what I am not. … [R]eligion renders this disunion all the more painful … [I]t sets man's own nature before him as a separate being.

True education is concerned not only with practical goals but also with values. Our aims assure us of our material life, our values make possible our spiritual life.

Recommend to your children virtue; that alone can make them happy, not gold.

Anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart, and cannot make a good soup.

Anyone who tells a lie has not pure heart, and cannot make good soup.

The only sign of "superiority" I acknowledge in Man is goodness.

Whoever tells a lie is not pure of heart, and such a person can not cook a clean soup.

If one prevents a man from working for the good of society while at the same time providing for the satisfaction of his own needs, then only one way remains open to him: to make himself richer and others poorer by the violent oppression and spoliation of his fellow men.

Since its appearance the view that prostitution is a product of capitalism has gained ground enormously. And as, in addition, preachers still complain that the good old morals have decayed, and accuse modern culture of having led to loose living, everyone is convinced that all sexual wrongs represent a symptom of decadence peculiar to our age.

It is not from a disdain of spiritual goods that liberalism concerns itself exclusively with man's material well-being, but from a conviction that what is highest and deepest in man cannot be touched by any outward regulation.

In science, compromise is a betrayal of truth.

There is no use in arguing about the adequacy of ethical precepts. They are derived from intuition; they are arbitrary and subjective. There is no objective standard available with regard to which they could be judged. Ultimate ends are chosen by the individual's judgments of value. They cannot be determined by scientific inquiry and logical reasoning.

If one treats men like cattle, one cannot squeeze out of them more than cattle-like performances.

The alcoholic and the drug addict harm only themselves by their behavior; the person who violates the rules of morality governing mans life in society harms not only himself, but everyone.

Justification is a remarkable thing-takes all those solid lines and blurs them, so that honor becomes as supple as a willow, and ethics burst like soap bubbles.

I know this much: morality is meant to be a clear line, but it's not really. Things change. Shit happens. Who we are is about not what we do, but why we tell ourselves we do it.

What good is the legal process if people can decide their motives are bigger than the law?

The safety of the rescuer is of a higher priority than the safety of the victim. Always. •

It's a little convenient, isn't it, to say that the reason you did something horrible was because someone else told you to. That doesn't make it any less wrong. No matter how many people are telling you to jump off a bridge, you always have the option to turn around and walk away.

There's really no such thing as a right or wrong choice. We don't make decisions. Our decisions make us.