Quotes About Ethics

An Ambassadore is a man of virtue sent to lie abroad for his country, a news writer is a man of no virtue who lies at home for himself." —Sir Henry Wotton

Knavery and flattery are blood relations." —Abraham Lincoln

Now I want you to consider: any legal adult here can do anything he wishes with the only restriction being that no one else gets hurt.

They cannot see that our sociological assumption is that such systems must not be allowed to exist, no matter the real or perceived benefits. They are continuing to attempt to fix what we consider unfixable and have abandoned.

When I religiously confess myself to myself, I find that the best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice.

The public weal requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre.

It is not without good reason said, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.

There is no man so good that if he placed all his actions and thoughts under the scrutiny of the laws, he would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.

The easy, gentle, and sloping path… is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road.

I will follow the right side even to the fire, but excluding the fire if I can.

I find that the best goodness I have has some tincture of vice.

He who is not very strong in memory should not meddle with lying.

Virtue craves a steep and thorny path.

Freedom of conscience entails more dangers than authority and despotism.

But the guilty person is only one of the targets of punishment. For punishment is directed above all at others, at all the potentially guilty.

L'avantage de tenir un discours moral, c'est que ce type de propos a été soumis à une censure si forte, et depuis tant d'années, qu'il provoque un effet d'incongruité et attire aussitôt l'attention de l'interlocuteur ; l'inconvénient, c'est que celui-ci ne parvient jamais à vous prendre tout à fait au sérieux. (La possibilité d'une île, Daniel 1,15)

To give a man 5 sous because he is poor and has no bread is perfect, but to give him a blowjob because he has no girlfriend is too much of a good thing: you don't have to do that.

Y todas las teorías de la libertad, desde Gide a Sartre, no son sino inmoralidades concebidas por solteros irresponsables.

As soon as the genome had been cmpletely decoded (which would be in a matter of months) humanity would have complete control of its evolution; when that happened sexuality would be seen for what it really was: a useless, dangerous, and regressive function.

and there can't be an area of human activity as utterly boring as the law.

Everyday morality is always a blend, variously proportioned, of perfect morality and other more ambiguous ideas, for the most part religious. The greater the proportion of pure morality in a particular system, the happier and more enduring the society. Ultimately, a society governed by the pure principles of universal morality could last until the end of the world.

La pure morale est unique et universelle. Elle ne subit aucune altération au cours du temps, non plus qu'aucune adjonction. Elle ne dépend d'aucun facteur historique, économique, sociologique ou culturel ; elle ne dépend absolument de rien du tout. Non déterminée, elle détermine. Non conditionnée, elle conditionne. En d'autres termes, c'est un absolu.

For the French, an intellectual didn't have to be responsible. That wasn't his job.

an intellectual didn't have to be responsible. That wasn't his job. In