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Ethics Quotes
"In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place."
144
"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."
133
"To use for our exclusive benefit what is not ours is theft."
90
"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."
78
"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 ."
63
"That's what I consider true generosity: You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing."
59
"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."
56
"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."
55
"Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality."
53
"You have the chance to remain silent. Everything you say will be misused."
49
"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."
46
"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."
45
"Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers."
43
"You can't assume the responsibility for everything you do-or don't do."
43
"A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody."
43
"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."
43
"The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings."
42
"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."
40
"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."
40
"The scrupulous survivors in life are the best counterweight to unscrupulous survivors."
39
"Treat people as an end, and never as a means to an end."
38
"Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end."
38
"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."
38
"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?"
38
"There is no person on earth so bad that he does not have something about him that is praiseworthy. Why is it, then, that we leave the good out of sight and feast our eyes on the unclean things? It is as though we enjoyed only looking at " if you will pardon the expression " a man's behind."
38
"It is often the people who refuse to assume any responsibility who are apt to be the sharpest critics of those who do."
38
"If we accept being talked to any kind of a way, then we are telling ourselves we are not quite worth the best. And if we have the effrontery to talk to anybody with less than courtesy, we tell ourselves and the world we are not very intelligent."
37
"It's hard luck always having to be a judge."
37
"Having knowledge of an unethical act and allowing it to continue can spread a contagion that can affect multiple beings in society."
37
"It speaks volumes when people who are discriminated against go on to discriminate against others."
37
"The punishment for rape should be castration."
36
"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."
36
"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."
36
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