ethics quotes

Abraham Lincoln: 

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.

Albert Einstein: 

The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. . . . The ordinary objects of human endeavour -- property, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.

Albert Einstein: 

True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness.

Albert Einstein: 

I do not believe in the immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern without any superhuman authority behind it.

Albert Einstein: 

A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

Albert Schweitzer: 

Thought cannot avoid the ethical or reverence and love for all life. It will abandon the old confined systems of ethics and be forced to recognize the ethics that knows no bounds. But on the other hand, those who believe in love for all creation must realize clearly the difficulties involved in the problem of a boundless ethic and must be resolved not to veil from [humankind] the conflicts which this ethic will involve [us], but allow [us] really to experience them. To think out in every implication the ethic of love for all creation -- this is the difficult task which confronts our age.â€� 

Albert Schweitzer: 

Ethics cannot be based upon our obligations toward [people], but they are complete and natural only when we feel this Reverence for Life and the desire to have compassion for and to help all creatures insofar as it is in our power. I think that this ethic will become more and more recognized because of its great naturalness and because it is the foundation of a true humanism toward which we must strive if our culture is to become truly ethical.

Albert Schweitzer: 

Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life. This is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring, and limiting life are evil.
Civilization and Ethics, 1949


Albert Schweitzer: 

The fundamental rights of [humanity] are, first: the right of habitation; second, the right to move freely; third, the right to the soil and subsoil, and to the use of it; fourth, the right of freedom of labor and of exchange; fifth, the right to justice; sixth, the right to live within a natural national organization; and seventh, the right to education.

Albert Schweitzer: 

Let me give you the definition of ethics: it is good to maintain life and to further life. It is bad to damage and destroy life. And this ethic, profound and universal, has the significance of a religion. It is religion.

Albert Schweitzer: 

Civilization can only revive when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind, independent of the prevalent one among the crowds, and in opposition to it -- a tone of mind which will gradually win influence over the collective one, and in the end determine its character. Only an ethical movement can rescue us from barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals.

Albert Schweitzer: 

A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives.

Albert Schweitzer: 

Reverence for Life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, assisting, and enhancing life and that to destroy, harm, or to hinder life is evil. Affirmation of the world -- that is affirmation of the will to live, which appears in phenomenal forms all around me -- is only possible for me in that I give myself out for other life.

Albert Schweitzer: 

What does Reverence for Life say abut the relations between [humanity] and the animal world? Whenever I injury any kind of life I must be quite certain that it is necessary. I must never go beyond the unavoidable, not even in apparently insignificant things. The farmer who has mowed down a thousand flowers in his meadow in order to feed his cows must be careful on his way home not to strike the head off a single flower by the side of the road in idle amusement, for he thereby infringes on the law of life without being under the pressure of necessity.

Algernon Black: 

Why not let people differ about their answers to the great mysteries of the Universe? Let each seek one's own way to the highest, to one's own sense of supreme loyalty in life, one's ideal of life. Let each philosophy, each world-view bring forth its truth and beauty to a larger perspective, that people may grow in vision, stature and dedication.

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Arthur Dobrin: 

A Humanist Code of Ethics:
Do no harm to the earth, she is your mother.
Being is more important than having.
Never promote yourself at another's expense.
Hold life sacred; treat it with reverence.
Allow each person the digity of his or her labor.
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Barbara Ehrenreich: 

Personally, I have nothing against work, particularly when performed, quietly and unobtrusively, by someone else. I just don't happen to think it's an appropriate subject for an "ethic."

Barbara Ehrenreich: 

I was raised the old-fashioned way, with a stern set of moral principles: Never lie, cheat, steal or knowingly spread a venereal disease. Never speed up to hit a pedestrian or, or course, stop to kick a pedestrian who has already been hit. From which it followed, of course, that one would never ever -- on pain of deletion from dozens of Christmas card lists across the country -- vote Republican.

Barbara Jordan: 

All my growth and development led me to believe that if you really do the right thing, and if you play by the rules, and if you've got good enough, solid judgment and common sense, that you're going to be able to do whatever you want to do with your life.

Barry Lopez: 

How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.
Arctic Dreams


Buddha: 

Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds.

Bureau of Social Hygiene study, 1928: 

It is very difficult and expensive to undo after you are married the things that your mother and father did to you while you were putting your first six birthdays behind you.

Charlotte Bronte: 

Conventionality is not morality.

Christopher Bigsby and Malcolm Bradbury: 

You know what they say: if God had been a Liberal, we wouldn't have had the ten commandments. We'd have had the ten suggestions.

Cicero: 

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.

Denis Diderot: 

There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.

Dorothy Rowe: 

We would like to believe that we are not in the business of surviving but in being good, and we do not like to admit to ourselves that we are good in order to survive.

Edward Ericson: 

The cosmos is neither moral or immoral; only people are. He who would move the world must first move himself.

Edwin Markham: 

We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life.

Elie Wiesel: 

I have learned two lessons in my life: first, there are no sufficient literary, psychological, or historical answers to human tragedy, only moral ones. Second, just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.

Eric Hoffer: 

The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves.

Felix Adler: 

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: 

To care for anyone else enough to make their problems one's own, is ever the beginning of one's real ethical development.

Felix Adler: 

The conception of worth, that each person is an end per se, is not a mere abstraction. Our interest in it is not merely academic. Every outcry against the oppression of some people by other people, or against what is morally hideous is the affirmation of the principle that a human being as such is not to be violated. A human being is not to be handled as a tool but is to be respected and revered. 
An Ethical Philosophy of Life


Freda Adler: 

Stripped of ethical rationalizations and philosophical pretensions, a crime is anything that a group in power chooses to prohibit.

George Bernard Shaw: 

Do not do unto others as you would they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.
1903, Man and Superman


H. L. Mencken: 

In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell.

HH the Dalai Lama: 

Consider the following. We humans are social beings. We come into the world as the result of others' actions. We survive here in dependence on others. Whether we like it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives when we do not benefit from others' activities. For this reason it is hardly surprising that most of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others.

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Heinz Pagels: 

Science cannot resolve moral conflicts, but it can help to more accurately frame the debates about those conflicts. 
The Dreams of Reason, 1988


Henry David Thoreau: 

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.
Letter, March 27, 1848


Hierocles: 

We ought always to deal justly, not only with those who are just to us, but likewise to those who endeavor to injure us; and this, for fear lest by rendering them evil for evil, we should fall into the same vice.

Isaac Asimov: 

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.

Isaac Asimov: 

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.

Isocrates: 

The noblest worship is to make yourself as good and as just as you can.

Jane Addams: 

Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics.

Jane Addams: 

We have learned to say that the good must be extended to all of society before it can be held secure by any one person or any one class. But we have not yet learned to add to that statement, that unless all [people] and all classes contribute to a good, we cannot even be sure that it is worth having.

John Burroughs: 

Nature teaches more than she preaches. There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral.

John Wesley: 

Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.

Marcus Aurelius: 

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

Marie Ebner von Eschenbach: 

Whenever two good people argue over principles, they are both right.

Mark Twain: 

Always do right--this will gratify some and astonish the rest. 
message to Young People's Society, Greenpoint Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, New York, February 16, 1901


Mark Twain: 

The government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.

Matthew Arnold: 

The true meaning of religion is thus not simply morality, but morality touched by emotion.

Matthew Henry: 

Goodness makes greatness truly valuable, and greatness make goodness much more serviceable.

Mohandas Gandhi: 

The Roots of Violence: 
Wealth without work, 
Pleasure without conscience, 
Knowledge without character, 
Commerce without morality, 
Science without humanity, 
Worship without sacrifice, 
Politics without principles.

Molleen Matsumura: 

Reason guides our attempt to understand the world about us. Both reason and compassion guide our efforts to apply that knowledge ethically, to understand other people, and have ethical relationships with other people. 
2/95


Noam Chomsky: 

States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions.

Omar N. Bradley: 

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.

Origen: 

The power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all.

Paul Ricoeur: 

The moral law commands us to make the highest possible good in a world the final object of all our conduct.

Pearl S. Buck: 

It may be that religion is dead, and if it is, we had better know it and set ourselves to try to discover other sources of moral strength before it is too late.

Pearl S. Buck: 

You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.

Plato: 

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.

Rabindranath Tagore: 

He who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: 

Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: 

The progress of religion is steadily to its identity with morals. Strength enters just as much as the moral element prevails.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: 

The moral sense reappears today with the same morning newness that has been from of old the fountain of beauty and strength. You say there is no religion now. 'Tis like saying in rainy weather, There is no sun, when at that moment we are witnessing one of its superlative effects.

Rene Descartes: 

The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.

Robert Wright: 

Altruism, compassion, empathy, love, conscience, the sense of justice -- all of these things, the things that hold society together, the things that allow our species to think so highly of itself, can now confidently be said to have a firm genetic basis. That's the good news. The bad news is that, although these things are in some ways blessings for humanity as a whole, they didn't evolve for the "good of the species" and aren't reliably employed to that end. Quite the contrary: it is now clearer than ever (and precisely why) the moral sentiments are used with brutal flexibility, switched on and off in keeping with self interest; and how naturally oblivious we often are to this switching. In the new view, human beings are a species splendid in their array of moral equipment, tragic in their propensity to misuse it, and pathetic in their constitutional ignorance of the misuse. [from The Moral Animal]

Shirley Chisholm: 

When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.

T. S. Eliot: 

The highest form of treason: to do the right thing for the wrong reason. Murder in the Cathedral

Theodore Bikel: 

All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.

Theodore Parker: 

Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice. Things refuse to be mismanaged long.

Thomas Erskine: 

In the New Testament, religion is grace and ethics is gratitude.

Thomas Paine: 

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.

Unknown: 

In this world everything changes except good deeds and bad deeds; these follow you as the shadow follows the body.

Vaclav Havel: 

Genuine politics -- even politics worthy of the name -- the only politics I am willing to devote myself to -- is simply a matter of serving those around us: serving the community and serving those who will come after us. Its deepest roots are moral because it is a responsibility expressed through action, to and for the whole.

Victor Frankl: 

We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by doing a deed; (2) by experiencing a value; and (3) by suffering.

W. H. Auden: 

We are here on earth to do good for others. What the others are here for, I don't know.

William Channing Gannett: 

Ethics thought out is religious thought; ethics felt out is religious feeling, and ethics lived out is the religious life.

William J. H. Boetcker: 

That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.

William James: 

[T]he true is only the expedient in the way of our thinking, just as the right is only the expedient in the way of our thinking.

William Lloyd Garrison: 

The success of any great moral enterprise does not depend upon numbers.

William Penn: 

To do evil that good may come of it is for bunglers in politics as well as morals.

William Robertson Smith : 

But we must not forget... this ritual expressed... certain ideas which lie at the very root of true religion, the fellowship of the worshippers with one another in their fellowship with the deity, and the consecration of the bonds of kinship as the type of all right ethical relations between man and man.