Quotes About Ethics

Th abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.

When we lack integrity, we use power to control. When we lead with integrity, we use power to bless.

Power acquired by guilt was never used for a good purpose. [Lat., Imperium flagitio acquisitum nemo unquam bonis artibus exercuit.]

Power always has a direction. It is always downward, towards the weak but power is often confused with what is right

I'm not into power for the sake of it.

Straying off course is not recognized as a capital crime by civilized nations.

The wise determine from the gravity of the case; the irritable, from sensibility to oppression; the high minded, from disdain and indignation at abusive power in unworthy hands.

Do not talk to me of goodness, of abstract justice, of nature law. Necessity is the highest law, public welfare is the highest justice.

Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.

If one must do a wrong, it's best to do it pursuing power-otherwise, let's have virtue.

He who has great power should use it lightly.

Man's responsibility increases as that of the gods decreases.

The good man is he who rules himself as he does his own property: his autonomous being is modelled on material power.

There is explosive power in virtue.

The first principle of a civilized state is that power is legitimate only when it is under contract.

Power without abuse loses its charm.

Nothing, indeed, but the possession of some power can with any certainty discover what at the bottom is the true character of any man.

All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they may alter the mode and application, but have no power over the substance of original justice.

In a democratic nation, power must be linked with responsibility, and obliged to defend and justify itself within the framework of the general good.

I lack what the English call character, by which they mean the power to refrain.

The power of lying is much less than the power of what is not to be discussed.

Who are we to create a heaven and hell for ourselves, excluding animals and plants in the bargain, just because we have the power to rationalize?

Law always chooses sides on the basis of enforcement power. Morality and legal niceties have little to do with it when the real question is: Who has the clout?

Beware the abuse of Power. Both by those we disagree with, as well as those we may agree with