Quotes About Ethics

We may not all break the Ten Commandments, but we are certainly all capable of it. Within us lurks the breaker of all laws, ready to spring out at the first real opportunity.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It's a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other.

Vision without power does bring moral elevation but cannot give a lasting culture.

Human morality is unthinkable without empathy.

Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.

In the Age of the Almighty Computer, drones are the perfect warriors. They kill without remorse, obey without kidding around, and they never reveal the names of their masters.

Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.

My father never was and isn't a mean man. You know, he never was ruthless. And he succeeded in life without sticking it to anybody. And that's a great example for a man, a strong man, a man's man, to give to his children. You can succeed, you can be successful, without walking over somebody.

It is true that integrity alone won't make you a leader, but without integrity you will never be one.

Journalism without a moral position is impossible. Every journalist is a moralist. It's absolutely unavoidable.

Without moral and intellectual independence, there is no anchor for national independence.

On that road of the informer, it is always night. I cannot ever inform against anyone without feeling something die within me. I inform without pleasure, because it is necessary.

Riches cannot be gathered without sin and evil means.

Without a moral framework, there is nothing left but immediate self-indulgence by some and the path of least resistance by others. Neither can sustain a free society.

Character in leadership is the most important balance for leadership. Without character, leaders have no safety. Leadership has no protection without character.

Note, besides, that it is no more immoral to directly rob citizens than to slip indirect taxes into the price of goods that they cannot do without.

Let him that is without stone among you cast the first thing he can lay his hands on.

No one has a right to consume happiness without producing it.

Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.

The truth is that we have no idea what the long-term effects of any artificial enhancement may be. Will our brains be able to withstand running at artificially heightened capacity?

I hate to witness animals in captivity - or see circus elephants paraded down the streets. When animals are caged, it's a loss of what they are.

There is no witness so terrible and no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us.

Universities should be about more than developing work skills. They must also be about producing civic-minded and critically engaged citizens - citizens who can engage in debate, dialogue and bear witness to a different and critical sense of remembering, agency, ethics and collective resistance.