Quotes About Ethics

Every now and then, I felt a teeny-weeny bit of guilt about what I was doing. But I needed the money more than I needed a good conscience.

I don't think human beans are all that bad-" "They're bad and they're good," said Pod; "they're honest and they're artful- it's just as it takes them at the moment".

People who are always making allowances for themselves soon go bankrupt.

temptation, that in itself it is nothing but an opportunity for choice; so it is rather defeatist to feel very guilty about it, as though one were half ready to commit the sin.

Quiero decir que la legitimidad de una cosa no viene determinada por la cantidad de valor que exige. Debió de requerir mucho valor asesinar a Abraham Lincoln, por ejemplo. ?Muy cierto. Yo diría que probablemente han sido más los individuos con complejos de inferioridad que han cometido delitos para demostrar su virilidad que incluso los que lo han hecho por dinero.

L'ho sentito dire che nessuno dovrebbe presumere di leggere l'universo se prima non ha capito e dominato la propria anima, altrimenti nulla potrà impedirgli di volgere al male tutta l'altra conoscenza".

He was like a fine olive tree, which when its roots are checked one way will put them out another. Summer or winter, storm or calm, his soul sought justice and the end of wrong.

La moral es la munición de la guerra. ?Moral no es más que otra palabra que se usa para todo. ¿Qué quiere decir? ¿Valentía o sanguinariedad, o no hacer preguntas indiscretas, o quiere decir lo que cada día nos dicen que quiere decir?

The rightness of a thing isn't determined by the amount of courage it takes.

If you can trigger the Lazarus reflex in a dead person, why not the orgasm reflex?

I never saw a lawyer yet who would admit he was making money.

Listen to me, Frankenstein. You accuse me of murder; and yet you would, with a satisfied conscience, destroy your own creature. Oh, praise the eternal justice of man!

Only a child expects life to be just; it's a man's part to stand by the consequences of his deeds.

Elizabeth's tears had wrung my heart: I longed to enfold her in my arms, to comfort her, but I knew it would be infamous indeed to take such advantage of her distress.

Honest men cannot be expected to anticipate the actions of scoundrels.

A human being has been given an intellect to make choices, and we know there are other food sources that do not require the killing of a creature that would protest being killed.

Executions, far from being useful examples to the survivors, have, I am persuaded, a quite contrary effect, by hardening the heart they ought to terrify. Besides, the fear of an ignominious death, I believe, never deterred anyone from the commission of a crime, because in committing it the mind is roused to activity about present circumstances.

It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world.

Every political good carried to the extreme must be productive of evil.

Nobody should trust their virtue with necessity, the force of which is never known till it is felt, and it is therefore one of the first duties to avoid the temptation of it.

It is not enough to show people how to live better: there is a mandate for any group with enormous powers of communication to show people how to be better.

There is always going to be bad in the world. I think that is what makes being good so important.

So remember, if you're feeling bitter or sorry for yourself about what you've done, and how much good you've accomplished or if you find yourself more than anyone else talking about the good you've done, you're doing it for the wrong reasons, because it should be the default.

Now I don't know where you come from if you think that you deserve a trophy, or a parade or are even guaranteed a thank-you for doing what's good and what's right to others, and being kind to them and respectful but in life, you probably will not get these things. But that's not why we we ought to do good we ought to do good, not because it's special or extra, but because it's the minimum of what we owe to one another.