Quotes About Ethics

With the indiscriminate nature of modern military technology (no such thing as a "smart bomb," it turns out) all wars are wars against civilians, and are therefore inherently immoral. This is true even when a war is considered "just," because it is fought against a tyrant, against an aggressor, to correct a stolen boundary.

Any humane and reasonable person must conclude that if the ends, however desirable, are uncertain and the means are horrible and certain, these means must not be employed.

What happened in World War II was what happened in war generally, and that was whatever the initiating cause, and however clear the moral reason is for the war in which one side looks better than the other, by the time the war ends both sides have been engaged in evil.

Confucius was not so much a philsopher as a proto-ideologist: what interested him was not metaphysical Truths but rather a harmonious social order within which individuals could lead happy and ethical lives. He was the first to outline clearly what one is tempted to call the elementary scene of ideology, its zero-level, which consists in asserting the (nameless) authority of some substantial Tradition.

In the end, I suspect, being female will do nothing for Sheba, except deny her the grandeur of genuine villainy.

One pretends that manners are the formalisation of basic kindness and consideration, but a great deal of the time they're simply aesthetics dressed up as moral principles, aren't they?

If the traditional Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic) are the basics that we want our children to master academically, then reverence, respect, and responsibility are the three Rs that our children need to master for the sake of their souls and the health of the world.

In order to make most good, least harm choices, and create a humane and sustainable world, we are going to have to become adept at making connections. Single-issue thinking and taking sides when issues are presented to us in simplistic terms will have to give way to far more nuanced research, consideration, and decision making.

It just seems our species is happier when we are good. Goodness is not guaranteed. A life of principle requires practice…. from Unless, a novel by Carol Shields

George is essentially a very good person'" Joan said, "But that is one of those meaningless sentences. What is a good person? Under the worst of circumstances, who can say what we would do? For all we know, we might be the worst people on earth.

There are worse things than telling a lie.

The whole what-goes-around-comes-around thing is simply our way of trying to make sense out of things that make no sense. Great stuff happens to bad people. Bad shit happens to good people. This is just the way it is.

Anyone who remains silent in the face of murder is an accomplice to murder. Anyone who does not condemn approves.

Któ? móg? si? w ?askawo?ci porówna? z agitatorem? Kto si? osta? dobrym przy nim? Nawet Bóg ju? nie by? dobrym, bo mówi?: Nie rusz cudzego. A przybysz ze ?wiata, nios?cy czerwon? gazet?, mówi?: Co cudze, to twoje. Któ? wi?c móg? by? od niego lepszym?

Always try to earn with an intention to return.

For an educated person, intelligence is important but character is more important.

Happiness is there when you are morally clear to yourself.

Living beautifully and justly are the source of all joy and happiness.

We are born for the happiness. We are living for the happiness. To be happy we have to be morally free. To be morally free we have to treat the humanity with uncompromising sincerity.

What you do defines you.

In a book published at the time, a lace manufacturer admitted that he expected his workers to turn a few tricks on the side to make up for his not paying them a living wage. Soon lace, including crocheted lace, began to be seen as morally tainted—it's made by prostitutes! As Donna Kooler suggests in The Encyclopedia of Crochet, this may even explain how the word "hooker" came to have such wayward connotations.

Depravity feeds on depravity, and with no sense right and wrong, there is nothing for them to hold on to.

who says wicked can't be good?

In a best-selling book, 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs (reprinted nine times by 1935), a pair of consumer-advocate authors complained that American citizens had become test animals for chemical industries that were indifferent to their customers' well-being. The government, they added bitterly, was complicit.