Philosophy & Thought: Ethics & Morality Quotes

"At the same time, we are aware that our various religions and ethical traditions often offer very different bases for what is helpful and what is unhelpful for men and women, what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil"

Hans Kung, Theologian

"My feeling is that the hero has now been defined by phrases like the odious one that we were all raised with - crimes does not pay. Of course it pays, you schmuck. That's not why we don't do it. We don't do it because it is wrong"

Frank Miller, Artist

"The pursuit of beauty is much more dangerous nonsense than the pursuit of truth or goodness, because it affords a stronger temptation to the ego"

Northrop Frye, Critic

"It wouldn't sit easily on one's conscience that you had been warned and there could be danger, but nevertheless you went ahead and said let's dispense these drugs"

Thabo Mbeki, Statesman

"Today, it is research with human embryonic stem cells and attempts to prepare cloned stem cells for research and medical therapies that are being disavowed as being ethically unacceptable"

Paul Berg, Scientist

"Act well at the moment, and you have performed a good action for all eternity"

Michael Korda, Novelist

"I like villains because there's something so attractive about a committed person - they have a plan, an ideology, no matter how twisted. They're motivated"

Russell Crowe, Actor

"Virtue is defined to be mediocrity, of which either extreme is vice"

Rutherford B. Hayes, President

"It is, therefore, essential that we guard our own thinking and not be among those who cry out against prejudices applicable to themselves, while busy spawning intolerances for others"

Wendell Willkie, Lawyer

"The problem with a purely collective system is not only that it requires economic growth, and the right sort of demographic trends, but that it prevents people thinking about their futures in a responsible way"

Jacques Delors, Economist

"Novel technologies and ideas that impinge on human biology and their perceived impact on human values have renewed strains in the relationship between science and society"

Paul Berg, Scientist

"The humanitarian lays stress almost solely upon breadth of knowledge and sympathy"

Irving Babbitt, Critic

"According to the new ethics, virtue is not restrictive but expansive, a sentiment and even an intoxication"

Irving Babbitt, Critic

"Evil is always devising more corrosive misery through man's restless need to exact revenge out of his hate"

Ralph Steadman, Cartoonist

"The true humanist maintains a just balance between sympathy and selection"

Irving Babbitt, Critic

"You can't have virtue without sin. What I'm after is having my characters' virtues defined by how they operate in a very sinful environment. That's how you test people"

Frank Miller, Artist

"To choose ways of not acting was ever the concern and scruple of my life"

Fernando Pessoa, Author

"When a citizen gives his suffrage to a man of known immorality, he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor; he betrays the interest of his country"

Noah Webster, Writer

"I have no use for people who hunt for what they call sport"

Mercedes McCambridge, Actress

"If there are flaws, they are in ourselves, and our task therefore must be one not of redesign but of renewal and reaffirmation, especially of the standards in which all of us believe"

Elliot Richardson, Lawyer

"Money motivates neither the best people, nor the best in people. It can move the body and influence the mind, but it cannot touch the heart or move the spirit; that is reserved for belief, principle, and morality"

Dee Hock, Businessman

"Moral authority has been laid to rest, world opinion is no more than a game show, and the difference between good and evil is about as relevant as changing channels"

Ralph Steadman, Cartoonist

"If priests were allowed to marry, if this would be an optional thing, and if he could have wife and children, he would certainly have less temptation to satisfy certain sexual impulses with minors"

Hans Kung, Theologian

"A great gulf, however, has been opened between man's material advance and his social and moral progress, a gulf in which he may one day be lost if it is not closed or narrowed"

Lester B. Pearson, Politician

"One has to be foolish or irredeemably stupid to believe that anything good can come to Europe from the land of presumed opportunity"

Julius Streicher, Soldier

"We must not, however, be like the leaders of the great romantic revolt who, in their eagerness to get rid of the husk of convention, disregarded also the humane aspiration"

Irving Babbitt, Critic

"Perhaps as good a classification as any of the main types is that of the three lusts distinguished by traditional Christianity - the lust of knowledge, the lust of sensation, and the lust of power"

Irving Babbitt, Critic

"Approval or blame will follow in the world to come"

Franz Schubert, Composer

"Environmental policy must strike a balance between the earth's best interests and our citizen's pressing needs"

Jim Clyburn, Politician

"Make a careful list of all things done to you that you abhorred. Don't do them to others, ever!"

Dee Hock, Businessman

"Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease but an error of judgment"

Philip K. Dick, Writer

"When the National Security Agency recruited me, they put me through a day of lie detector tests. They found out all my weaknesses and immediately seduced me. They used the strongest drugs in our culture, sex, power, and money, to win me over"

John Perkins, Economist

"People with bad consciences always fear the judgment of children"

Mary McCarthy, Author

"Now we are flying off into outer space, there is no clear curb on what can be done in the name of the economy"

Susan George, Activist

"You can eliminate, for example, a Brazil nut gene if you know that it will create an allergenic effect"

Jeremy Rifkin, Economist

"There is a crisis of public morality. Instead of policing bedrooms, we ought to be doing a better job policing boardrooms"

Robert Reich, Economist

"He's the president of the United States. He's got to work 14 to 16 hours a day, run foreign and domestic policy. If he's got time for mistresses after all that, what the hell difference does it make?"

Pierre Salinger, Public Servant

"Ethical religion can be real only to those who are engaged in ceaseless efforts at moral improvement. By moving upward we acquire faith in an upward movement, without limit"

Felix Adler, Educator

"You don't need to be the good guy to get a good message out"

LL Cool J, Musician

"Economy is the basis of society. When the economy is stable, society develops. The ideal economy combines the spiritual and the material, and the best commodities to trade in are sincerity and love"

Morihei Ueshiba, Athlete

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