Quotes About Ethics

If I could make a dream real, I would not kill anything unless it could never be changed at heart.

Mithorden: I would rather live than die. I would rather die than survive as a monster.

As I observed earlier, the greatest evils are, with alarming regularity, done in the name of goodness. When we finally fry this planet in a nuclear holocaust, it will not have been done by a bunch of naughty little boys and girls; it will have been done by grave, respectable types who loved their high ideals too much to lay them down for the mere preservation of life on earth. And lesser evils follow the same rule.

Always remember, you don't need bad people to get bad deeds done. All you need is somebody clever enough to convince good people that a nefarious policy is actually the greatest thing since the pop-up toaster. As I have frequently observed, most of the serious evils in the world have been done in the name of good.

Keep a spirited Christian horse and a useful ethical donkey. But don't try to breed a mule.

God does not punish people for being nonpacifists; war alone is punishment enough.

The church is not in the morals business. The world is in the morals business, quite rightfully; and it has done a fine job of it, all things considered.

A man had to close his eyes to remain an optimist, and there was no honor in that.

Once you start fighting in a war, of course, you are immediately complicit in a form of mass murder.

Qué había ocurrido con nuestra moral desde el 11 de septiembre? Temía saber la respuesta. Tras la primera y la segunda guerra mundial, nosotros —Occidente— plantamos un bosque de legislación para impedir

Journalism can be lethal

Equal time is not necessary when dealing with evil. Nazis do not merit equal or fair treatment.

A mistake is always forgivable, rarely excusable and always unacceptable.

Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power.

Don't you know that if people could bottle the air they would? Don't you know that there would be an American Air-bottling Association? And don't you know that they would allow thousands and millions to die for want of breath, if they could not pay for air? I am not blaming anybody. I am just telling how it is.

If I owe Smith ten dollars and God forgives me, that doesn't pay Smith.

An honest God is the noblest work of man.

Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test.

Whoever claims any right that he is unwilling to accord to his fellow-men is dishonest and infamous.

Suppose it should turn out that no such person as Christ ever lived. What harm would that do justice or mercy? Wouldn't the tear of pity be as pure as now, and wouldn't justice, holding aloft her scales, from which she blows even the dust of prejudice, be as noble, as admirable as now? Is it not better to love justice and mercy than to love a name, and when you put a name above justice, above mercy, are you sure that you are benefiting your fellowmen?

Injustice upon earth renders the justice of of heaven impossible.

In judging of the rich, two things should be considered: How did they get it, and what are they doing with it? Was it honestly acquired? Is it being used for the benefit of mankind? When people become really intelligent, when the brain is really developed, no human being will give his life to the acquisition of what he does not need or what he cannot intelligently use.

In this connection we might ask how God can be moral or good unless he believes in some Being superior to himself?

What pleasure can it give God to see a man devoured by a cancer; to see the quivering flesh slowly eaten; to see the nerves throbbing with pain? Is this a festival for God?