Quotes About Ethics

The only reason that they say, 'Women and children first' is to test the strength of the lifeboats.

In the course of its development, civilization eliminates heroism.

When her existence is threatened, the Church is absolved of all moral commandments

Dans la vie on ne fait pas ce que l'on veut mais on est responsable de ce que l'on est.

When More had said that a man who cannot restrain his passions is essentially cruel, he spoke the truth.

Extreme justice is often injustice.

Crime like virtue has its degrees; and timid innocence was never known to blossom suddenly into extreme license.

The foundation of all civilization is loitering.

One kills a man, one is an assassin one kills millions, one is a conqueror one kills everybody, one is a god.

Science has made us gods even before we are worthy of being men.

A few great minds are enough to endow humanity with monstrous power, but a few great hearts are not enough to make us worthy of using it.

To say of men that they are bad is to say they are worse than we think we are, or worse than the ideal man whose image we have built up on the basis of a certain few.

We are not na?ve enough to ask for pure men; we ask merely for men whose impurity does not conflict with the obligations of their job.

It is also difficult to define the boundaries within which we judge inequality.

Collective promises are never kept, since no one feels responsible for fulfilling them

holding directorships;

hacking the website of an academic journal to change the referees' reports.

Por otra parte, ese fenómeno se ve reforzado por el deseo de la gente de mostrar a los demás o a sí mismos que son «gente de bien»; nuestro altruismo no es totalmente puro, sino que está motivado en parte por nuestro deseo de aparentar, de labrarnos una buena imagen social y personal.

social acceptability of digitization depends on us believing that our data will not be used against us,

Power is a corruption, and any society which operates from a power base is a corrupt society.

But basing a whole philosophy of life on what you would do in extremis does not seem to me to be right.

An ethics of desire is good news for those of us who have become allergic to an ethics of law.

We had a bishop this morning and what do you think he said? "The most beneficent promise made us in the Bible is this,'The poor ye have always with you.' They were put here in order to keep us charitable." The poor, please observe, being a sort of useful domestic animal. If I hadn't grown into such a perfect lady, I should have gone up after service and told him what I thought.

We have not reached the consensus that to eat is a basic human right. This is an ethical crisis. This is a crisis of faith.