Quotes About Ethics

Should a traveler, returning from a far country, bring us an account of men wholly different from any with whom we were ever acquainted, men who were entirely divested of avarice, ambition, or revenge, who knew no pleasure but friendship, generosity, and public spirit, we should immediately, from these circumstances, detect the falsehood and prove him a liar with the same certainty as if he had stuffed his narration with stories of centaurs and dragons, miracles and prodigies.

Thomas Hobbes's politics are fitted only to promote tyranny, and his ethics to encourage licentiousness.

judgments. A mistake, therefore, of right may become a species

Where then is the crime of turning a few ounces of blood from their natural channel?

It is only from the selfishness and confined generosity of men, along with the scanty provision nature has made for his wants, that justice derives its origin.

Nada es tan cierto como que los hombres se guían en gran medida por el interés y que aun cuando se preocupan por algo que trasciende de ellos mismos no llegan muy lejos;

The rules of morality. therefore, are not conclusions of our reason. No one, I believe, will deny the justness of this inference; nor is there any other means of evading it, than by denying that principle, on which it is founded.

Tis not solely in poerty and music, we must follow low our taste and sentiment, but likewise in philosophy (Hume, 1739, p.153).

When any opinion leads us into absurdities, 'tis certainly false; but 'tis not certain an opinion is false, because 'tis of dangerous consequence.

Tis not solely in poetry and music, we must follow low our taste and sentiment, but likewise in philosophy (Hume, 1739, p. 153).

Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.

Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.

Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.

Heaven and Hell suppose two distinct species of men, the Good and the Bad. But the greatest part of mankind float betwixt vice and virtue.

He made not even the briefest mention, indeed no mention at all, of the Nazis' extermination of Europe's Jews.

talking about what people ought to do, instead of giving some kind of lead in condemning what they are actually doing.

the moral leadership of the Papacy is conditioned by considerations of opportunism and expedience.

observed the pope. "Some remain secret, others are exploited. Whenever we are told of such cases, we intervene immediately. And severely.

Humans are so Funny. So much moralising about words while at the same time thinking it perfectly "moral" to pepper-bomb cities full of people to protect them from violence.

La connaissance est neutre , mais elle peut être utilisée avec de bonnes ou de mauvaises intentions.

Knowledge is not positive or negative, it is always neutral. It is how knowledge is used that is positive or negative.

Technophilosophy is a combination of (1) asking philosophical questions about technology and (2) using technology to help answer traditional philosophical questions.

money is the original sin in politics and I am not sinless.

The problem, really, is that while humanity continues to experience huge leaps in technology, we experience no equivalent leaps in our ethical capacity. In the never-ending arms race between technology and ethics, technology always wins. Researchers who tally the results of this immortal race have a name for it: history.