Philosophy & Thought: Ethics & Morality Quotes

"Hatred is a feeling which leads to the extinction of values"

Jose Ortega Y Gasset, Philosopher

"What most men desire is a virgin who is a whore"

Edward Dahlberg, Novelist

"A wise unselfishness is not a surrender of yourself to the wishes of anyone, but only to the best discoverable course of action"

David Seabury, Psychologist

"My hope is that people will be repulsed by the character's complete lack of ethics and obsession with consumerism - that's what I was saying about the difference between the character's message and the film's message"

Christian Bale, Actor

"Corporations cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed, nor excommunicated, for they have no souls"

Edward Coke, Businessman

"Conservatives unwittingly side with the social forces that contribute to the destruction of traditional values"

Christopher Lasch, Historian

"Abortion and racism are both symptoms of a fundamental human error. The error is thinking that when someone stands in the way of our wants, we can justify getting that person out of our lives. Abortion and racism stem from the same poisonous root, selfishness"

Alveda King, Clergyman

"We have the Bill of Rights. What we need is a Bill of Responsibilities"

Bill Maher, Comedian

"There is a fine line between censorship and good taste and moral responsibility"

Steven Spielberg, Director

"It's a moral question about whether we have the right to exterminate species"

David Attenborough, Journalist

"All men would be tyrants if they could"

Daniel Defoe, Journalist

"While that amendment failed, human cloning continues to advance and the breakthrough in this unethical and morally questionable science is around the corner"

Mike Pence, Politician

"I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures. Why do good people sometimes act evil? Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?"

Philip Zimbardo, Psychologist

"I consider that there are different degrees of civilization and there are many different ways of expressing it. But one is civilized or is not"

Flora Lewis, Journalist

"It's no sin to cheat the devil"

Daniel Defoe, Journalist

"Today, a new faith is stirring: the myth of blood, the faith that, along with blood, we are defending the divine nature of man as a whole"

Alfred Rosenberg, Soldier

"The war on drugs is wrong, both tactically and morally. It assumes that people are too stupid, too reckless, and too irresponsible to decide whether and under what conditions to consume drugs. The war on drugs is morally bankrupt"

Larry Elder, Journalist

"It has been rightly said that nothing is unimportant, nothing powerless in the universe; a single atom can dissolve everything, and save everything! What terror! There lies the eternal distinction between good and evil"

Gerard De Nerval, Novelist

"Men have never been good, they are not good, and they never will be good"

Karl Barth, Theologian

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

Marguerite Duras, Novelist

"I think copyright is moral, proper. I think a creator has the right to control the disposition of his or her works - I actually believe that the financial issue is less important than the integrity of the work, the attribution, that kind of stuff"

Esther Dyson, Scientist

"What's right isn't always popular. What's popular isn't always right"

Howard Cosell, Lawyer

"A drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be, according to the fitness and tendency of things. Nature has set upon him the process of decline and dissolution by which she removes things which have survived their usefulness"

William Graham Sumner, Businessman

"If human beings are fundamentally good, no government is necessary; if they are fundamentally bad, any government, being composed of human beings, would be bad also"

Fred Woodworth

"Ballet-girls have a bad reputation, which is in most cases well deserved"

Henry Mayhew, Journalist

"Neutral men are the devil's allies"

Edwin Hubbel Chapin, Clergyman

"Surely there comes a time when counting the cost and paying the price aren't things to think about any more. All that matters is value - the ultimate value of what one does"

James Hilton, Novelist

"If one commits the act of sodomy with a cow, an ewe, or a camel, their urine and their excrements become impure, and even their milk may no longer be consumed. The animal must then be killed and as quickly as possible and burned"

Ayatollah Khomeini, Statesman

"It is bad policy to regulate everything... where things may better regulate themselves and can be better promoted by private exertions; but it is no less bad policy to let those things alone which can only be promoted by interfering social power"

Friedrich List, Economist

"They're only truly great who are truly good"

George Chapman, Poet

"We have, I fear, confused power with greatness"

Stewart Udall, Politician

"No scoundrel is so stupid as to not find a reason for his vile conduct"

Shakti Gawain, Author

"We are all, in a sense, experts on secrecy. From earliest childhood, we feel its mystery and attraction. We know both the power it confers and the burden it imposes. We learn how it can delight, give breathing space and protect"

Sissela Bok, Philosopher

"The question was heatedly debated of how much Western culture should be brought into China"

Chen Ning Yang, Physicist

"Goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in goodness"

Athenaeus, Author

"The most important of all rights is the right to life, and I cannot foresee a day when domesticated animals will be granted that right in law"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"Publicity, publicity, publicity is the greatest moral factor and force in our public life"

Joseph Pulitzer, Publisher

"Righteousness is easy in retrospect"

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Historian

"Democracy without morality is impossible"

Jack Kemp, Politician

"I think, unfortunately, some people are just bad, they're just born bad, and I don't know why"

Judge Mills Lane, Celebrity

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