Quotes About Ethics

You hear entertainers all the time, saying, 'If I couldn't get paid for this, I'd do it for free.' When's the last time you ever heard a business person say, 'If I couldn't get paid for being chairman of British Petroleum, I'd do it for free'?

rebut Sarhatt's

moribund patients, conducting autopsies on them all and EEGs on some.

First and foremost, a leader should strive to be an individual of flawless character, technical competence, and moral courage.

Chez nous c'est comme les bêtes, et c'est normal : on s'entraide quand on est là, et quand il y a un blessé on l'achève, dans l'intérêt de la communauté.

Kernkraftwerke hinzustellen, ohne zu wissen, wo der Atommüll endlagert werden kann, ist wie das Abziehen einer Handgranate bevor man weiss, wo man sie hinwerfen wird.

Politics are not the task of a Christian.

The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.

Destruction of the embryo in the mother's womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.

Political action means taking on responsibility. This cannot happen without power. Power is to serve responsibility.

Neighbourliness is not a quality in other people, it is simply their claim on ourselves.

Those who wish even to focus on the problem of a Christian ethic are faced with an outrageous demand-from the outset they must give up, as inappropriate to this topic, the very two questions that led them to deal with the ethical problem: 'How can I be good?' and 'How can I do something good?' Instead they must ask the wholly other, completely different question: 'What is the will of God?

It is worse for a liar to tell the truth than for a lover of truth to lie.

The limitation of the ethical phenomenon to its place and time does not imply its rejection but, on the contrary, its validation. One does not use canons to shoot sparrows.

In short, it is much easier to see a thing through from the point of view of abstract principle than from that of concrete responsibility.

Only when Christian faith in God is lost do people feel compelled to make use of all means—even criminal—to force the victory of their cause.

Every moment and every situation challenges us to action and to obedience. We have literally no time to sit down and ask ourselves whether so-and-so is our neighbour or not. We must get into action and obey – we must behave like a neighbour to him.

Human beings have freedom toward death and the right to death, in the sense of sacrifice, but only when the good sought through sacrifice, and not the destruction of one's own life, is the reason for risking one's life.

The most astonishing observation one makes today is that people surrender everything in the face of nothingness: their own judgment, their humanity, their neighbors. Where this fear is exploited without scruple, there are no limits to what can be achieved.[130]

Total war uses every conceivable means toward the end of national self-preservation. Everything is right and permitted that serves the cause of one's own people.

It is wrong, in this age of necessary decisions, to bully people into decisions that are neither genuine nor necessary.

It is becoming clearer every day that the most urgent problem besetting our Church is this: How can we live the Christian life in the modern world?

Since the appearance of Christ, ethics can be concerned with only one thing: to partake in the reality of the fulfilled will of God.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions." This saying, which is found in a broad variety of lands, does not arise from the brash worldly wisdom of an incorrigible. It instead reveals deep Christian insight.