Quotes About Ethics

Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well.

Doing well is a result of doing good.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind.

I hate the prostitution of the name of friendship to signify modish and worldly alliances.

Truth is the summit of being; justice is the application of it to affairs.

The corruption of man is followed by the corruption of language.

Each man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well - he has changed his market-cart into a chariot of the sun.

Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment.

Be as beneficent as the sun or the sea, but if your rights as a rational being are trenched on, die on the first inch of your territory.

You would compliment a coxcomb doing a good act, but you would not praise an angel.

Every experiment, by multitudes or by individuals, that has a sensual and selfish aim, will fail.

What's the use of an admirable form of government if political parties and moneyed interests control it? What's the use of our judicial system, if judges only quote precedents and ignore first principles? What's the use of a Supreme Court if it's swayed by the political winds of the hour?

A man's fortunes are the fruit of his character.

for the hand can never execute any thing higher than the character can inspire.

No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature

laws of moral nature answer to those of matter as face

The truest test of civilization is not the census, size of cities, or crops; but the kind of man the country turns out.

Noblesse oblige; or, superior advantages bind you to larger generosity.

Transcendentalists have been accused of being rebels and rule-breakers. But if they disregard society's customs and laws, it's because they're listening to conscience and obeying the Law Maker within. There are situations where virtue asks us to break the rules.

Character teaches above our wills. Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment.

the bold sensualist will use the name of philosophy to gild his crimes.

If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons. Samuel Johnson The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons. Ralph Waldo Emerson

We do what we must, and call it by the best names.

Men of character are the conscience of the society to which they belong.