Philosophy & Thought: Ethics & Morality Quotes

"If power made one evil, then God would be the Devil"

Jonah Goldberg, Celebrity

"If slaughterhouses had glass walls, the whole world would be vegetarian"

Linda McCartney, Photographer

"The ethics of editorial judgement, however, began to go though a sea change during the late 1970s and '80s, when the Carter and Reagan administrations de-regulated the television industry"

Roger Mudd, Journalist

"Neutrality, as a lasting principle, is an evidence of weakness"

Lajos Kossuth, Lawyer

"But no man has a monopoly of conscience"

Mary A. Ward

"When a good man lends himself to the advocacy of slavery, he must, at least for a time, feel himself to be any where but at home, amongst his new thoughts, doctrines, and modes of reasoning"

Gerrit Smith, Politician

"In 1930s mysteries, all sorts of motives were credible which aren't credible today, especially motives of preventing guilty sexual secrets from coming out. Nowadays, people sell their guilty sexual secrets"

P. D. James, Novelist

"It took us a long time to find out that we had been lied to by our parents' generation. The moralities that were followed during our parents' generation were basically arbitrary. This caused a rift between the two generations, which was brought on by the beatniks"

Peter Fonda, Actor

"I willingly took John Lennon's life. What I did was despicable"

Mark David Chapman, Criminal

"Men are accomplices to that which leaves them indifferent"

George Steiner, Critic

"Depart from discretion when it interferes with duty"

Hannah More, Writer

"Once you take a life, that's it. I don't even deserve to be here"

Mark David Chapman, Criminal

"I don't know how one actually would define obscenity. I'm sure the definition is different according to the age one is living in"

Jane Alexander, Actress

"The copycat effects of media violence, similar to those previously attributed to westerns, radio serials and comic books, are easy to exaggerate"

Hugh Mackay, Writer

"As the most extravagant errors were received among the established articles of their faith, so the most infamous vices obtained in their practice, and were indulged not only with impunity, but authorized by the sanction of their laws"

David Brainerd, Clergyman

"Withholding information that would get innocent people killed was the right thing to do, not a journalistic sin"

Eason Jordan, Journalist

"One who imitates what is bad always goes beyond his model; while one who imitates what is good always comes up short of it"

Francesco Guicciardini, Historian

"I have been committed to carrying out my duties... in accordance with both the letter and spirit of all applicable rules of ethics and canons of conduct"

Samuel Alito, Judge

"If we know anything about man, it's that he's not pacific. The temptation to butcher anyone considered undesirable seems to be a common temptation, not always resisted"

Larry McMurtry, Writer

"Our consciences are littered, like an old attic, with the junk of sheer conviction"

Wilford O. Cross, Writer

"It is the custom of the Roman Church which I unworthily serve with the help of God, to tolerate some things, to turn a blind eye to some, following the spirit of discretion rather than the rigid letter of the law"

Pope Gregory VII, Clergyman

"Subject the material world to the higher ends by understanding it in all its relations to daily life and action"

Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards

"Getting the support of Syria is the moral equivalent of winning the Klan's endorsement - it might be useful, but it doesn't necessarily speak well of you"

Jonah Goldberg, Celebrity

"If we had this back, and in full measure; if society were infused by it, through and through, and men lived its life, and in its life, philosophy would take care of itself and the nature of our institutions would not matter"

Ralph A. Cram, Architect

"I succumbed to hedonism"

Simon Le Bon, Musician

"A viewer who skips the advertising is the moral equivalent of a shoplifter"

Nicholas Johnson, Writer

"It's wrong to kill"

Charles Evers, Activist

"For this equilibrium now in sight, let us trust that mankind, as it has occurred in the greatest periods of its past, will find for itself a new code of ethics, common to all, made of tolerance, of courage, and of faith in the Spirit of men"

Albert Claude, Scientist

"Heroism in a bad cause"

Karel Reisz, Director

"Given what the media have put the country through this past decade, it must come as a surprise to most Americans that the press has a code of ethics"

Roger Mudd, Journalist

"The only sexual act that is sinful is the one that uses or abuses"

Pat Buckley, Clergyman

"It's one thing to fight for what you believe in, another thing to fight for what others believe in"

James Wolcott, Critic

"Sainthood is acceptable only in saints"

Pamela Hansford Johnson, Critic

"The calling of the humanities is to make us truly human in the best sense of the word"

J. Irwin Miller, Businessman

"Television preachers extract money from the poor to live in a style and to indulge in shameful acts which equal or outdo the worst of the Renaissance Popes"

J. Irwin Miller, Businessman

"I think most of us sense that it is a responsibility of the humanities to try to help better the conduct of human beings in their lives and manifold professional activities"

J. Irwin Miller, Businessman

"The problem with experiments has always been that human beings make the decisions on whether or not the animals have benefitted from the treatment"

James Randi, Entertainer

"The attitude we have towards our personal pets as opposed to the animals that suffer under the factory farm is hypocritical and delusional"

James Cromwell, Actor

"Character... is a habit, the daily choice of right over wrong; it is a moral quality which grows to maturity in peace and is not suddenly developed on the outbreak of war"

Charles Wilson, Public Servant

"The only correct actions are those that demand no explanation and no apology"

Red Auerbach, Coach

Page 65 of 78