Quotes About Ethics

Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.

The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been kindness, beauty, and truth.

It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.

True religion is real living living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness.

I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves — such an ethical basis I call more proper for a herd of swine. The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil.

A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

Concern for man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavor. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.

Technological progress is like an ax in the hands of a pathological criminal.

The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth.

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.

As a result of my philosophy, I wasn't even upset about Hitler. I was willing to go to war to knock him off, but I didn't hate him. I hated what he was doing.

The concept of deservingness for one's "sins" implies that certain acts are unquestionably under all conditions "sinful." And this is impossible to prove.

The most important extra-curricular lesson we learned,—and we learned it properly,—was summed up in Chief Justice Jay's dictum that "justice is always the same, whether it be due from one man to a million, or from a million to one man." We learned this, not by precept, but by example, which is the best way to learn such lessons. In

I believe in the Golden Rule and the Declaration of Independence. I think they both mean the same thing."3

God has given us a conscience superior to all law," said Wendell Phillips. The individual's conscience and the Golden Rule top any written law. There is such a thing as righteous lawbreaking.

There is no limit of degradation to which power cannot bring anyone even with the loftiest principles. We would hope that being unprepared for power, they would be ineffective. Their task is not "seize power" (those who use this term show that they seek personal power for themselves) but to abolish the bases for power. Power to all means power to nobody in particular.

One must live, act and think now, in this life, as if one were worthy of a hoped immortality. To be brief, find and communicate the truth, if possible. Beware of prejudice and utopias, of all dogmas, including those that are one's own. Live without submission and without compromise. For me, this is the ethics of the thinker and the foundation of what I mean by philosophy.