Quotes About Ethics

The good die young — because they see it's no use living if you've got to be good.

Is man a savage at heart, skinned o'er with fragile Manners? Or is savagery but a faint taint in the natural man's gentility, which erupts now and again like pimples on an angel's arse?

Compassion has no place in the natural order of the world which operates on the basis of necessity. Compassion opposes this order and is therefore best thought of as being in some way supernatural.

Everything in life, is a question of drawing a line, John, and you have to decide for yourself where to draw it. You can't draw it for others. You can try, of course, but it doesn't work. People obeying rules laid down my somebody else is not the same thing as respecting life. And if you want to respect life, you have to draw a line.

The Bible is very clear that in the last days men will be "lovers of themselves" (2 Tim. 3:2).

Let us revise our views and work from the premise that all laws should be for the welfare of society as a whole and not directed at the punishment of sins.

Breaking things and hurting people, thought Harry as he marched across the gravel. A cracking fuckin' way for a bloke to earn a quid. Better than being chased around by those paparazzi cunts, at any rate. He

Make no mistake, a 'yes' vote on the Democrats' health care bill is a vote for taxpayer-funded abortions.

People say you favor assassination, what do you think war is? Except that it's assassination on a much larger scale, a much more horrific scale.

The New Testament takes no demonstrable position on homosexuality. To suggest that Paul's references to excesses of sexual indulgence involving homosexual behavior are indicative of a general position in opposition to same-sex eroticism is as unfounded as arguing that his condemnation of drunkenness implies opposition to the drinking of wine.

We must never settle for harmony at the expense of holiness, nor for peace at the expense of principal.

It's essential to tell the truth at all times. This will reduce life's pain. Lying distorts reality. All forms of distorted thinking must be corrected.

In truth, much of human social life—our morality, our relationships—revolves around challenges posed by intertemporal choice.

For me, the laws that apply to animals apply to us. And in that view of life, there is grandeur enough.

Are humans ever really capable of regarding others as ends in themselves?

people judge people as less moral when they act altruistically and gain in the process than when they gain from clearly nonaltruistic behavior.

people view "tainted altruism" as worse than no altruism at all.

Economics graduate students are far more likely to free-ride than other students.

Our brains trick us into thinking that we have Moral Truth on our side when in fact we don't, and blind us to important truths that our brains were not designed to appreciate.

Bad behavior is seen as something to be noticed, reported on, and analyzed, whereas people who do not lie and cheat are taken for granted.

an individual's moral obligation in the situation is to 'call it as he sees it' without consideration of what others say.

The science of morality requires us to, in the end, get beyond the myth of a perfectly objective scientific morality.

He who sells what isn't his'n must buy it back or go to prison.

Business people who are otherwise meticulous in their observance of the law seem to regard copyright infringement about as seriously as they regard jaywalking.