Quotes About Ethics

Moral judgements are singularly out of place in espionage. —Graham Greene

Later in conversation he corrected himself: It was in fact 1.1 million pigs. The difference might seem like just a rounding error, he told me, but if you ever had to kill an "extra" hundred thousand pigs and dispose of their bodies in bulldozed pits, you'd remember the difference as significant.

Un individuo humano puede elegir no consumir savia de palma, no comer carne de chimpancés, no montar las pocilgas a la sombra de los mangos, no limpiar la tráquea de los caballos con las manos desnudas, no tener sexo sin protección con prostitutas, no compartir aguja, no toser sin taparse la boca, no subirse con síntomas a un avión o no poner a las gallinas y a los patos en el mismo corral.

The vet, a fiercely caring professional, told them the horse was dying. Knowing her duty, she said: "I want to euthanize it.

If we illegally detain Altek, the threat we face is to our way of life. We cannot selectively enforce our laws. To do so diminishes us as a civilization, and lowers us to the moral and ethical ranks of those who oppose us.

Exactly. Now think about it, Tucker. Someone walked up to that young, tender sapling and, without any regard for what was right or wrong, took out a long, sharp steel steeple and hammered it deep into the tree to hold the wire in place. It probably tore the bark and splattered sap into the air. The tree didn't ask for it and certainly didn't deserve it to be done. If you think about it, it was a cruel thing to

People are "punished" or "rewarded" not for what they have done but for what they have become, and what we intentionally do is what makes us what we are.

With rare exceptions, the fields of all countries have been made to bear their crops without the least reference to the interests of future generations.

When Communist Party chiefs in Russia went fishing, scuba divers plunged underwater and put fish on the hooks. When they went hunting, specially bred elk, stag, and deer were made to saunter across the field in point-blank range. Everyone had a wonderful time. When the king of Afghanistan visited the Tajik resort of Tiger Gorge, he blew away the last Turan tiger in the country.

Telling the truth is always wrong if it threatens those for whom being wrong can never be true.

human beings we have the obligation to transcend law through mercy. If we all had to live by the law, we would all be condemned—all of us. It is only by showing compassion and mercy that we create a better world.

I wish that I may never think the smiles of the great and powerful a sufficient inducement to turn aside from the straight path of honesty and the convictions of my own mind.

The tooth fairy teaches children that they can sell body parts for money.

After Sarajevo, after Srebrenica, we know what "Never again!" means. "Never again'' simply means "Never again'' will Germans kill Jews in Europe in the 1940's. That is all it means.

Once you give up your integrity, everything else is a piece of cake. —J. R. Ewing

The image of Yahweh in S's court history is an image suggestive of J herself, a powerful presence largely in the background, great enough to forgive David his flaws with a constant belovedness, a "lovingkindness"—in Hebrew, the word chesed, which weds love to ethics. David was beloved, loved as no man before him—by Yahweh.

You don't have to be a college graduate to murder someone." "Thank you for making the jury aware of that, Lieutenant. I'm sure they had no idea.

All technology should be assumed guilty until proven innocent.

Cam smiled wryly. "Priests and lawyers. Not exactly the most popular members of society right now, are we?" "And to think, mothers used to dream of their children becoming lawyers or clergymen.

a few must die so the rest can live in peace, well, such is the ugly but unavoidable cost of living in a civilized society. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.

true leader exhibited five essential characteristics: intelligence, commitment, integrity, courage, and resourcefulness.

It is an empty joy to appear better than you are; but a great blessing to be what you ought to be.

If you read someone else's diary, you get what you deserve.

If you read someone else's diary, you get what you deserve.