Quotes About Ethics

The end must justify the means.

For, when with beauty we can virtue join, We paint the semblance of a form divine.

The ends must justify the means.

You need to know it's your actions that will make you a good person, not desire.

What people do in the name of religion is not necessarily religious. It often has baser reasons behind it.

A civilization is judged by how it treats the vulnerable.

you have the right to feel however you like, but not the right to act however you want.

When you start with a necessary evil, and then over time the necessity passes away, what's left?

Factory farming isn't just killing: It is negation, a complete denial of the animal as a living being with his or her own needs and nature. It is not the worst evil we can do, but it is the worst evil we can do to them.

The only thing worse than cruelty is delegated cruelty.

When we shrink from the sight of something, when we shroud it in euphemism, that is usually a sign of inner conflict, of unsettled hearts, a sign that something has gone wrong in our moral reasoning.

Intellectuals are a pretty unique species all by themselves, given to advocating things out of sheer brazenness that they could not themselves stomach if they were ushered in to witness the scene.

The elephants we have seen taunted and tormented and slaughtered by the likes of Safari Club do not have time to wait while the world's ethicists work out some centuries-long paradigm shift in moral thought.

Where we find wrongs done to animals, it is no excuse to say that more important wrongs are done to human beings, and let us concentrate on those. A wrong is a wrong, and often the little ones, when they are shrugged off as nothing, spread and do the gravest harm to ourselves and others.

Reforms will come as all great reforms have always come in ridding us of evils against both man and animal--not as we change our moral principles but as we discern and accept the implications of principles already held.

If wealth were the creation of individuals alone - even if it were the result of their ability to cheat and steal from one another - it would fall to earth in the shape of a bell curve. It would not land in the form of an insane ski slope.

Vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful, the Nature of man alone consider'd."67 Conversely, "nothing is so likely to make a man's fortune as virtue."68

She saw that he couldn't live in a way other than the one he thought was right, and when he saw what the right thing was, like now, he cared about it as if it were the only thing that mattered.

The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed. —GANDHI T

It is not possible to live happily if one does not lead a beautiful, righteous, and wise life, or to lead a beautiful, righteous, and wise life if one is not happy. EPICURUS

The great master Padmasambhava said, Even if my view is higher than the sky, The attention I pay to my actions and their effects is finer than flour.

Others, however, point out that science is incapable of revealing all truths, and that while technology has produced huge benefits, the ravages it has caused are at least as great. What is more, science is silent when it comes to providing wisdom about how we should live.

l'humble prend ses décisions selon ce qu'il estime être juste et s'y tient, sans s'inquiéter ni de son image ni du qu'en-dira-t-on.

How should I lead my life? How should I live in society? What is knowable?