Quotes About Ethics

One of the great advantages about being a villain is that you can easily recognise other villains and on rare occasions, recognise a truly good man.

It would be masochistic and sadistic of me to tell the truth about something if I knew for sure that I would create only misery for myself and others. We've all heard of pathological liars. Telling the truth in such circumstances would be an example of being pathologically honest. We need to judge each behavior on its specific consequences for happiness and not on the basis of whether or not it accords to a generally good rule.

Not everyone is able to lie or is willing to do so.

Lying is such a central characteristic of life that better understanding of it is relevant to almost all human affairs.

Public opinion polls time and again show that honesty is among the top five characteristics people want in a leader, friend, or lover.

People feel less guilty about lying to those they think are wrongdoers. A philanderer whose marital partner is cold and unwilling in bed might not feel guilty in lying about an affair.

when, in our contemporary idiom, "talking" about compassion becomes more important than "walking" in compassion – then words show their ever-lurking danger.

But if you're asking my opinion, I would argue that a social justice approach should be central to medicine and utilized to be central to public health. This could be very simple: the well should take care of the sick.

If there is any larceny in a man, golf will bring it out.

A fib such as the above did nobody any harm, while a lie was deliberate, told to save yourself or to gain an unfair advantage.

In this life and death case, I felt Mrs. Schiavo should receive the fullest due process from our legal system.

The Beat spokesman, surprisingly, seemed to be satisfied with the ethics that we have inherited.

From that day on I clearly understood that the kingdom of God can never mix with politics

The bottom line is down where it belongs - at the bottom.

The gap in our economy is between what we have and what we think we ought to have — and that is a moral problem, not an economic one.

There are only two things worth aiming for, good music and a clean conscience.

There are only two things that are worthwhile: good music and a clear conscience.

los hombres importantes tienen responsabilidades importantes, y la de no mantener su palabra es una de ellas.

If you must give me a label, then label me a human being. I have no pride in being a human, though, because I have nothing to do with my becoming one. But, whereas animals don't have a rational code of ethics, I like to think I do. Which is where I am partisan. Moral partisanship is the reason for my "anger." And if I don't protest what needed to be protested, I might just as well be an animal.

If it were profitable to have indentured servants in the modern world, I'm sure that Richard Scaife's think tanks would have no trouble finding justifications, and assorted Christian groups would explain why it's God's will.

You are consistently dishonorable and therefore immensely trustworthy. You always eschew principle and reward venality.

but I'm a trial lawyer, damn it. In the legal system, not everything is black-and-white. I make my living in the gray.

Philosophers and poets may be truth seekers. Lawyers only want to win.

Shakespeare said only our bad deeds live after us," Victoria, the smart one, said. "The good is oft interred with their bones.