Ethics Quotes

I do not believe in the immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively hu...

A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and ne...

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it emb...

Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.

A man does not have to be an angel in order to be a saint.

The thinking (person) must oppose all cruel customs, no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and su...

Very little of the great cruelty shown by men can really be attributed to cruel instinct. Most of it...

The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs, no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surroun...

The fundamental principle of morality which we seek as a necessity for thought is not, however, a ma...

The practices we now call conservation are, to a large extent, local alleviations of biotic pain. Th...

My paper was a direct discussion and comparison of half-a-dozen ethical systems, concentrating on wh...

What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like ...

The three wealthiest people in the world own more than the GDP of forty-eight countries!

It isn't the evil and indecent who are flung down into the depths, no! Oh, no! The evil and decisive...

The single word that directs a person’s fate and ultimately the fates of those she comes in contact ...

Every skill and every inquiry, and similarly every action and rational choice, is thought to aim at ...

It is impossible, or not easy, to alter by argument what has long been absorbed by habit

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies.

Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest vict...

The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he c...

Nor is he liberal who gives with pain; for he would prefer the wealth to the noble act, and this is ...

It is well said, then, that it is by doing just acts that the just man is produced, and by doing tem...

Now to exert oneself and work for the sake of amusement seems silly and utterly childish. But to amu...

One can with but moderate possessions do what one ought.

Life in accordance with intellect is best and pleasantest, since this, more than anything else, cons...

Happiness seems to depend on leisure, because we work to have leisure, and wage war to live in peace...

Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by...

[T]hese leaders must not believe they are actually being watched, for their behavior in no way refle...

Satan, on the contrary, is thin, ascetic and a fanatical devotee of logic. He reads Machiavelli, Ign...

Now this was possible only by a man determining himself entirely *rationally* according to concepts,...

In conformity with this spirit and aim of the Stoa, Epictetus begins with it and constantly returns ...

How is it possible that suffering that is neither my own nor of my concern should immediately affect...

Boundless compassion for all living beings is the surest and most certain guarantee of pure moral co...

The search for scapegoats is essentially an abnegation of responsibility: it indicates an inability ...

Every dictator is a mystic, and every mystic is a potential dictator. A mystic craves obedience from...

I'm not asking you to do your best. I'm asking you to do your job." -Dagny Taggart

Hence the sterile, uninspiring futility of a great many theoretical discussions of ethics, and the r...

Observe how many people evade, rationalize and drive their minds into a state of blind stupor, in dr...

But of all the deadly theories by means of which you are now being destroyed, I would like to warn y...

But when our elected officials and our political campaign become entirely untethered to reason and f...

Eating is a genuine need, continuous from our first day to our last, amounting over time to our most...

All laws which can be violated without doing any one any injury are laughed at. Nay, so far are they...

those, who are believed to be most self—abased and humble, are generally in reality the most ambitio...

men, in so far as they live in obedience to reason necessarily do only such things as are necessaril...

Hatred is increased by being reciprocated, and can on the other hand be destroyed by love.

Minds, however, are conquered not by arms, but by love and nobility.

The good which every man, who follows after virtue, desires for himself he will also desire for othe...

Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself.

Nothing forbids man to enjoy himself, save grim and gloomy superstition

For though men be ignorant, yet they are men

The superstitious know how to reproach people for their vices better than they know how to teach the...

It will be said that, although God’s law is inscribed in our hearts, Scripture is nevertheless the W...

The widespread assumption that ethical behavior takes the fun out of life is false. In actuality, li...

Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with o...

We have in fact, two kinds of morality, side by side: one which we preach, but do not practice, and ...

Having knowledge of an unethical act and allowing it to continue can spread a contagion that can aff...

We have two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice and the other w...

So long as there is death there will be sorrow, and so long as there is sorrow it can be no part of ...

One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.

Just because I do not accept the teachings of the devotaries does not mean I've discarded a belief i...

Just because I do not accept the teachings of the devotaries does not mean I've discarded a belief i...

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.

Good and evil both increase at compound interest.

The old dealt with its pupils as grown birds deal with young birds when they teach them to fly; the ...

An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about the ultimate fou...

The heart never takes the place of the head: but it can, and should, obey it.

the difference between the old and the new education being) in a word, the old was a kind of propaga...

For every one pupil who needs to be guarded from a weak excess of sensibility there are three who ne...

By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he ...

No justification of virtue will enable a man to be virtuous. Without the aid of trained emotions the...

Relationships must be fostered as far as possible and maintained, and thus a morbid transference can...

Could we possible manage the next phase of human history without first dealing with this penchant fo...

Just take the weapon you hold in your hand and drive it through his heart," Valentine's voice was so...

Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as ...

The poison that is war does not free us from the ethics of responsibility. There are times when we m...

Let's say that the consensus is that our species, being the higher primates, Homo Sapiens, has been ...

We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On ever...

About once or twice every month I engage in public debates with those whose pressing need it is to w...

If a problem is irreversible, is there still an ethical obligation to try to reverse it?

Ethics and equity and the principles of justice do not change with the calendar.

The only justice is to follow the sincere intuition of the soul, angry or gentle. Anger is just, and...

His moral lectureblazed with hate.What could have driven a child that far?

Transhumanism is the ethics and science of using things like biological and genetic engineering to t...

The argument has long been made that we humans are by nature compassionate and empathic despite the ...

The answer can't be found in books - or be solved by bringing it to other people. Not unless you wan...

Nathan seemed to have absorbed his sense of journalistic ethics from old movies about newspaper repo...

Am I a good person? Deep down, do I even really want to be a good person, or do I only want to seem ...

Is it possible that future generations will regard our present agribuisness and eating practices in ...

True education does not consist merely in the acquiring of a few facts of science, history, literatu...

I knew how one climbing the mountain of worldly success can slip down into the river below without b...

The limitation of the ethical phenomenon to its place and time does not imply its rejection but, on ...

A father acts on behalf of his children by working, providing, intervening, struggling, and sufferin...

Those who wish even to focus on the problem of a Christian ethic are faced with an outrageous demand...

Principles are only tools in the hands of God they will soon be thrown away when they are no longer ...

Due to some dim but irresistible notion of the way things are, it is simply not possible, out of ord...

It is not at all surprising that the disciples imagined that the law had been abrogated, when Jesus ...

Despite the fact that an Indonesian island chicken has probably had a much more natural life than on...

But with dogs, we do have "bad dog." Bad dog exists. "Bad dog! Bad dog! Stole a biscuit, bad dog!" T...