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Ethics Quotes

Browse 3072 quotes about Ethics.

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Ethics Quotes

“If you punish a child for being naughty, and reward him for being good, he will do right merely for the sake of the reward; and when he goes out into the world and finds that goodness is not always rewarded, nor wickedness always punished, he will grow into a man who only thinks about how he may get on in the world, and does right or wrong according as he finds advantage to himself.”

IfsThinkingMenWorldMayChildrenDoeGrowsGoodnessEthicsAdvantageRewardsSakeBe GoodWickednessNaughty
Book:On Education
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“They have no consciousness therefore. Therefore what? Therefore we are free to use them for our own ends? Therefore we are free to kill them? Why? What is so special about the form of consciousness we recognize that makes killing a bearer of it a crime while killing an animal goes unpunished?...all this discussion of consciousness and whether animals have it is just a smokescreen. At bottom we protect our own kind. Thumbs up to human babies, thumbs down to veal calves.”

HumansKindEndsUseFormAnimalConsciousnessSpecialCrimeBabyProtectEthicsKillingBottomDiscussionThumbsCalvesAnimal EthicsThumbs UpThumbs Down
Author:J. M. Coetzee
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“If a being suffers there can be no moral justification for refusing to take that suffering into consideration. No matter what the nature of the being, the principle of equality requires that its suffering be counted equally with the like suffering - insofar as rough comparisons can be made - of any other being. So the limit of sentience is the only defensible boundary of concern for the interests of others. To mark this boundary by some other characteristic like intelligence or rationality would be to mark it in an arbitrary manner. Why not choose some other characteristic, like skin color?”

IfsMadeMatterWould BeSufferingInterestAnimalMoralPrinciplesColorLimitsEthicsConcernSkinsMarkNo Matter WhatBoundariesCharacteristicsConsiderationComparisonRoughWhy NotJustificationRationalityArbitrarySkin ColorAnimal Ethics
Author:Peter Singer
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“I must say...that more unmanly, brutal treatment of a little pony it was never my painful lot to witness; and by giving way to such passion, you injure your own character as much, nay more, than you injure your horse, and remember, we shall all have to be judged according to our works, whether they be towards man or towards beast.”

MenWayGivingLittlesCharacterRememberPassionAnimalEthicsHorsePainfulWitnessBeastPetTreatmentJudgedBrutalPoniesAnimal EthicsGiving Way
Author:Anna Sewell
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“Standing before you as the advocate of the lower races, I declare what I believe cannot be gainsaid...that just so soon and so far as we pour into all our schools the songs, the poems, and literature of mercy toward these lower creatures, just so soon and so far shall we reach the roots not only of cruelty, but of crime.”

BelieveSchoolSongLiteratureI BelieveAnimalRaceCrimeCreaturesEthicsStandingRootsMercyCrueltyPetAnimal Ethics
Author:George Thorndike Angell
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“Some years ago I wrote a book called The House on Eccles Street. To write this book I had to think my way into the existence of Marion Bloom...Marion Bloom was a figment of James Joyce's imagination. If I can think my way into the existence of a being who has never existed, then I can think my way into the existence of a bat or a chimpanzee or an oyster, any being with whom I share the substrate of life.”

IfsThinkingWayWritingYearsI CanBookHouseImaginationAnimalExistenceShareStreetsEthicsYears AgoMy WayPetBatsOystersChimpanzeesJoyceAnimal EthicsFigments
Author:J. M. Coetzee
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“Anyone who says that life matters less to an animal than it does to us has not held in his hands an animal fighting for its life. The whole of the being of the animal is thrown into that fight, without reserve. When you say that the fight lacks a dimension of intellectual or imaginative horror, I agree. It is not the mode of being animals to have an intellectual horror: their whole being is in the living flesh...I urge you to walk, flank to flank, beside the beast that is prodded down the chute to his executioner.”

DoeMatterWholeHandsFightingWalksAnimalHorrorIntellectualEthicsAgreeFleshBeastDimensionsThrownUrgesReservesImaginativeExecutionersAnimal Ethics
Book:The Lives of Animals: The Lives of Animals [Princeton Classics]
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“I believe that pity is a law like justice, and that kindness is a duty like uprightness. That which is weak has a right to the kindness and pity of that which is strong. In the relations of man with the animals...there is a great ethic, scarcely perceived as yet, which will at length break through into the light, and which will be the corollary and the complement to humans ethics. Are there not here unsounded depths for the thinker? Is one to think oneself mad because one has the sentiment of universal pity in one's heart?”

ThinkingMenBelieveHumansHeartLightLawStrongI BelieveJusticeAnimalBreakKindnessDutyEthicsWeakUniversalRelationMadDepthOneselfPityLengthSentimentsThinkerBreak ThroughComplementAnimal EthicsUprightness
Author:Victor Hugo
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“To me, a philosopher who says that the distinction between human and nonhuman depends on whether you have a white or a black skin, and a philosopher who says that the distinction between human and nonhuman depends on whether or not you know the difference between a subject and a predicate, are more alike than they are unlike.”

KnowsHumansBlackDifferencesWhiteAnimalSubjectsDependsEthicsSkinsPhilosopherDistinctionPetAnimal EthicsBlack Skin
Book:Elizabeth Costello
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“Anything which causes trouble has special merit in their eyes.”

EyeCausesTroubleSpecialEthicsMeritSisyphusLegal Ethics
Book:Literary and Educational Writings: Panegyricus and Philippum Austriaeducem. Moriae encomium. Dialogus Julius exclusus e coelis. Institutio principis christiani. Querela pacis
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“Whenever you wish to do anything against the law, Cicely, always consult a good solicitor first.”

FirstsLawWishEthicsLawyerSolicitorsLegal Ethics
Book:The Collected Plays of George Bernard Shaw (Illustrated): Including Renowned Titles like Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, The Inca Of Perusalem, Macbeth Skit, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion
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“America with 4% of the world's population has 50% of the worlds lawyers .... tort lawyers love to point out that 1% of America's health care cost is used to pay malpractice insurance ... but most doctors practice defensive medicine to avoid malpractice litigation ... these costs are not included in the 1% number above.”

WorldCareAmericaUsedNumbersPayPracticeCostEthicsDoctorsMedicinePopulationLawyerHealth CareHealth Care CostsMalpracticeTortsLegal Ethics
Author:Richard Lamm
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“Too many people hold the idea that psychopaths are essentially killers or convicts. The general public hasn't been educated to see beyond the social stereotypes to understand that psychopaths can be entrepreneurs, politicians, CEOs and other successful individuals who may never see the inside of a prison.”

PeopleMayIdeasIndividualSocialSuccessfulPoliticianEthicsPrisonEntrepreneurEducatedKillersCeoStereotypePsychopathGeneral PublicConvictsSuccessful Individuals
Author:Robert D. Hare
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“Whether we know it or not, we transmit the presence of everyone we have ever known, as though by being in each other's presence we exchange our cells, pass on some of our lifeforce, and then we go on carrying that person in our body, not unlike springtime when certain plants in fields we walk through attach their seeds in the form of small burrs to our socks, our pants, our caps, as if to say, 'Go on, take us with you, carry us to root in another place.' This is how we survive long after we are dead. This is why it is important who we become, because we pass it on.”

IfsKnowsPersonsLongImportantBodyFormCertainWalksKnownFieldsGoes OnEthicsRootsPlantSeedsCellsPantsCapsSpringtimeSockTransmitBurrs
Author:Natalie Goldberg
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“The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort.”

WholeProblemChallengesEffortMoralPersonalityEgoEthicsConsciousShadowShadow Self
Book:The Collected Works of C. G. Jung: pt. 1. The archetypes and the collective unconscious. pt. 2. Aion, researches into the phenomenology of the self
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