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Ethics Quotes
"In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place."
131
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hopes of reward after death."
118
"Forgiveness is created by the restitution of the abuser, of the wrongdoer. It is not something to be squeeeeeezed out of the victim in a further act of conscience-corrupting abuse."
69
"To use for our exclusive benefit what is not ours is theft."
68
"I will call no being good who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow creatures; and if such a creature can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go ."
53
"In the realm of power, Christianity has operated with an unmitigated arrogance and cruelty-necessarily, since a religion ordinarily imposes on those who have discovered the true faith the spiritual duty of liberating the infidels. This particular true faith, moreover, is more deeply concerned about the soul than it is about the body, to which fact the flesh (and the corpses) of countless infidels bears witness."
52
"I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc, is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them."
48
"That's what I consider true generosity: You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing."
44
"Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality."
40
"We have also set up the national institute for ethics. This institute and also the implementation of the national integrity plan, that will certainly do the follow up that is necessary for this."
38
"Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers."
37
"Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end."
33
"You can't assume the responsibility for everything you do-or don't do."
33
"Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival."
32
"The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings."
32
"Is what I did really so much worse than what anybody else does?Is it really so much worse than what you do?Think about it."
31
"Am I a good person? Deep down, do I even really want to be a good person, or do I only want to seem like a good person so that people (including myself) will approve of me? Is there a difference? How do I ever actually know whether I'm bullshitting myself, morally speaking?"
30
"A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody."
30
"Having knowledge of an unethical act and allowing it to continue can spread a contagion that can affect multiple beings in society."
30
"Just how common do such savageries have to be for a decent person to be unable to overlook them? If you knew that one in one thousand food animals suffered actions like those described above, would you continue to eat animals? One in one hundred? One in ten?"
29
"Perhaps in the back of our minds we already understand, without all the science I've discussed, that something terribly wrong is happening. Our sustenance now comes from misery. We know that if someone offers to show us a film on how our meat is produced, it will be a horror film. We perhaps know more than we care to admit, keeping it down in the dark places of our memory-- disavowed. When we eat factory-farmed meat we live, literally, on tortured flesh. Increasingly, that tortured flesh is becoming our own."
29
"Man's life is the standard of morality, but your own life is its purpose . If existence on earth is your goal, you must choose your actions and values by the standard of that which is proper to man-for the purpose of preserving, fulfilling and enjoying the irreplaceable value which is your life."
28
"It is often the people who refuse to assume any responsibility who are apt to be the sharpest critics of those who do."
28
"Cannibals? Who is not a cannibal? I tell you it will be more tolerable for the Fejee that salted down a lean missionary in his cellar against a coming famine; it will be more tolerable for that provident Fejee, I say, in the day of judgement, than for thee, civilized and enlightened gourmand, who nailest geese to the ground and feastest on their bloated livers in thy pate de fois gras."
28
"Politeness [is] a sign of dignity, not subservience."
28
"As told by Kafka's close friend Max Brod:"Suddenly he began to speak to the fish in their illuminated tanks. 'Now at least I can look at you in peace, I don't eat you anymore.' It was the time he turned strictly vegetarian."
27
"There was a distinction between lying and telling half-truths, but it was a very narrow one."
27
"When we lift our forks, we hang our hats somewhere. We set ourselves in one relationship or another to farmed animals, farm-workers, national economies, and global markets. Not making a decision--eating 'like everyone else'--is to make the easiest decision, a decision that is increasingly problematic."
27
"A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; 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."
27
"The Master said, "If your conduct is determined solely by considerations of profit you will arouse great resentment."
27
"The scrupulous survivors in life are the best counterweight to unscrupulous survivors."
26
"The topic of compassion is not at all religious business; it is important to know it is human business, it is a question of human survival."
26
"It reveals how well you value someone - the way you handle their belongings."
26
"It's a general rule " a law of space, as it was a law of the sea in the old days, that ships had to respond to distress calls. Unless of course it places their own lives in danger. Bearing this thought in mind, as you can probably tell by my writing, my fingers are beginning to tremble slightly."
26
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