Quotes About Ethics

A system that is amoral and imbecilic enough to compel selling Amazon's stock because it invested in protecting its workers during a pandemic is not one that we should trust to steward the overall health and well-being of our economy.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Ordinary morality is only for ordinary people.

Siento un deseo espantoso de devorar todos los libros. Pero al mismo tiempo, mi represión ética me advierte que más vale depositar mi hambre en uno solo.

Tampoco creo en la moral: la moral es la gramática del deseo.

Only those who do not care, only those who find a way to diminish or extinguish the value of other human beings, survive wars without damage and speak of warrior honor afterward.

We know that laws ought to be obeyed only if they come out of people's sense of justice, not because the state needs them to preserve its power. Laws devised for the depravity of power are as worthless as the paper they are printed on.

A deception that elevates us is dearer than a host of low truths.

The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.

Bullies, oppressors and all men who do violence to the rights of others are guilty not only of their own crimes, but also of the corruption they bring into the hearts of their victims.

O fossero di que' prudenti che s'adombrano delle virtù come de' vizi, predicando sempre che la perfezione sta nel mezzo; e il mezzo lo fissan giusto in quel punto dov'essi sono arrivati, e ci stanno comodi.

No harm comes to an honest man who minds his own business and knows his place.

también el mundo hace sus leyes, que prescriben el bien y el mal; también tiene su evangelio, un evangelio de soberbia y de odio; y no quiere que se diga que el amor por la vida es una razón para transgredir sus mandamientos. No lo quiere; y es obedecido.

Povero Renzo! – rispose il frate, - se il potente che vuol commettere l'ingiustizia fosse sempre obbligato a dir le sue ragioni, le cose non aderebbero come vanno.

perché le guerre fatte senza una ragione sarebbero ingiuste)

Si sa che agli uomini il bene bisogna, le più volte, farlo per forza.

V'ha detto che i doveri annessi al ministero fossero liberi da ogni ostacolo, immuni da ogni pericolo? O v'ha detto forse che dove cominciasse il pericolo, ivi cesserebbe il dovere? O non v'ha espressamente detto il contrario?

Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart - and through all human hearts.

The choices we make, for good or ill, will affect the welfare of generations yet unborn. —State of the Union message, January 14, 1963

Objectivism holds that the good must be defined by a rational standard of value, that pleasure is not a first cause, but only a consequence

Yet weirdly, even as our societies have become more medicalized, our experience of death has turned more remote. Death itself is more horrifying and unthinkable than ever. Serious technologists now truly believe they will be able to cheat the reaper for all eternity by uploading their consciousnesses into the ether.

We may eventually come to realize that chastity is no more a virtue than malnutrition.

Most members of the political elites of north-east Africa have come to resemble gangsters rather than civic political leaders.