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Ethics Quotes

Browse 3072 quotes about Ethics.

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Ethics Quotes

“The legal system doesn't always serve as a good guide for your conscience. You can step way over the ethical line and still be inside the law. The same thing goes for rules, policies and procedures - you know, the organization's "internal laws." You can "go by the book" and still behave unethically. Still not move beyond mediocrity. High standards-the ethics of excellence-come to life through your basic values, your character, integrity and honesty. Obeying the law is the bare minimum.”

KnowsWayStillsBookCharacterMovingLawValuesLinesStepsHonestyPolicyIntegrityStandardsEthicsConscienceOrganizationExcellenceGuidesBehaveInternalsEthicalMediocrityMinimumProceduresObeyingHigh StandardsLegal SystemHonesty And IntegrityIntegrity CharacterObeying The LawPolicies And Procedures
Author:Price Pritchett
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“Any first-order, substantive normative theory worth its salt will require attention to the mental states of agents in a variety of quite complex ways. But realism, being a view about the status of such normative theories, insists that the truth of any firstorder normative standard is not a function of what anyone happens to think of it.”

ThinkingWayFirstsStatesHappensActionOrderViewsAttentionMoralPsychologyTheoryStandardsEthicsFunctionComplexesAgentsVarietySaltRealismWorth It
Book:Moral Realism: A Defence
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“We must not put pressure on people, but by providing information on the population and the environment, and appropriate contraception for everyone (and by their own example), doctors should help bring family size into the arena of environmental ethics, analogous to avoiding patio heaters and high carbon cars.”

PeopleShouldHelpingEnergyEnvironmentCarInformationEthicsDoctorsPressureEnvironmentalClimate ChangeSizePopulationAppropriateProvidingCarbonAvoidingArenaContraceptionOverpopulation
Author:John Guillebaud
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“Legal ethics is a misnomer ... lawyers conducting themselves legally are not necessarily conducting themselves morally ."...and ..."The zero sum nature of the legal system, combined with the universal adoption of zealotry as the marching orders of practioners and prosecutors, transforms the moral mission of the legal system from one of truth-seeking, storytelling, and justice, to one of fabrication, distortion, and manipulation in pursuit of victory. These victories, however, make us all losers.”

OrderJusticeMoralVictoryEthicsUniversalSeekingMissionsLawyerPursuitStorytellingManipulationZeroLoserAdoptionDistortionConductingLegal SystemProsecutorFabricationZealotryLegal Ethics
Author:Thane Rosenbaum
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“Do not believe what you have heard Do not believe in tradition because it is handed down many generations Do not believe in anything that has been spoken of many times Do not believe because the written statements come from some old sage Do not believe in conjecture Do not believe in authority, or teachers, or elders But after careful observation and analysis, when it agrees with reason and it will benefit one and all, then accept it and live by it.”

BelieveHas BeensReasonAcceptingTeacherWrittenGenerationsHeardAuthorityBenefitsEthicsTraditionAgreeCarefulStatementsObservationAnalysisLive BySageEldersConjecture
Author:Gautama Buddha
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“The politics of that year [2004] are old now, but the problem remains the same, the real culture clash of American life. It's between the essence of fundamentalism - paternalism, authority, and charity - and the messy imperatives of democracy, "the din of the vox populi" once derided by Abram Vereide. It's the difference between false unity, preached from above, and real solidarity, pledged between brothers and sisters - the kinds who are always bickering.”

YearsKindRealProblemCultureDifferencesDemocracyBrotherAuthorityEthicsEssenceRemainsUnityCharitySolidarityFundamentalismCitizenshipBrothers And SistersImperativesMessyClashAmerican LifeBickeringAbramPaternalismVox Populi
Author:Jeff Sharlet
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“We all faced painful ethical challenges before we even knew how to spell our names. There were tough choices. Tradeoffs. Confusing signals regarding how to live one's life. And here we are now, today, still struggling. Still trying to sort things out. Still trying to work our way through life effectively. About the only thing that has changed is the scope of the problem. There's more at stake now. And we're in a position, as grownups, to do a lot more-good or bad-for ourselves, our organization, our world. But we still must wrestle with our imperfect ethics.”

WorldWayLifeTryingStillsProblemTodayPainChoicesNamesChallengesStrugglePositionChangedEthicsToughOrganizationPainfulOur WorldEthicalSpellsImperfectionStakesImperfectSignalsConfusingScopeLife StruggleGrownupsTough Choices
Author:Price Pritchett
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“When you hold out for high standards, people are impressed-but they don't always like you for it. Not everybody will be on your side in your struggle to do what's right and ethical. In fact, sometimes even you won't be on your side. You'll wrestle with inner conflict, torn between what you should do and what you want to do. You'll also aggravate other people. Seems when you walk the straight and narrow you always step on someone's toes. Don't count on the ethics of excellence to make you popular.”

PeopleWantShouldSometimesFactsSeemsSidesWalksStepsStruggleLike YouConflictStandardsEthicsExcellenceWhat You WantEthicalImpressedToesTornYour SideLife StruggleHigh StandardsInner Conflict
Author:Price Pritchett
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“But when we get enough people who don't care, and who don't accept personal responsibility for high ethical standards, our organization gets the "M" disease. Mediocrity. Anybody in the place can be a carrier. By the same token, every individual can carry the cure: the ethics of excellence.”

PeopleEnoughCareIndividualResponsibilityAcceptingDiseaseStandardsEthicsOrganizationExcellenceIndividualityDon't CareCuresEthicalMediocrityPersonal ResponsibilityTokensCarrierEthical Standards
Author:Price Pritchett
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“The mistake made by all previous systems of ethics has been the failure to recognize that life as such is the mysterious value with which they have to deal. All spiritual life meets us within natural life. Reverence for life, therefore, is applied to natural life and spiritual life alike. In the parable of Jesus, the shepherd saves not merely the soul of the lost sheep but the whole animal. The stronger the reverence for natural life, the stronger grows also that for spiritual life.”

LifeHas BeensMadeSoulWholeSpiritualValuesJesusLostStrongGrowsNaturalAnimalDealsMistakeStrengthEthicsStrongerMysteriousReverenceSpiritual LifeSheepShepherdsParablesReverence For LifeNatural Life
Book:Albert Schweitzer: An Anthology
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“Market forces have no intrinsically moral direction, which is why, before he wrote The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Ethics should precede economics. But it doesn't have to. . . . We know this because we've seen the results of capitalism without conscience: the pollution of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat; the endangerment of workers; and the sale of dangerous products - from cars to toys to drugs. All in pursuit of ever-greater profits.”

KnowsShouldPoliticalForceNationsWaterWealthResultsMoralGreaterAirDangerousCarProductsTheoryDrinkDrugEthicsConscienceCapitalismEconomicsWorkersProfitBreathePursuitSentimentsAdamToysPollutionWealth Of NationsEndangerment
Author:Arianna Huffington
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“How could politics be a science, if laws and forms of government had not a uniform influence upon society? Where would be the foundation of morals, if particular characters had no certain or determinate power to produce particular sentiments, and if these sentiments had no constant operation on actions?”

IfsCharacterGovernmentWould BeActionFormLawPoliticalCertainMoralInfluenceProduceParticularMoralityEthicsFoundationConstantOperationsSentimentsUniformsForms Of Government
Book:Essays Moral, Political, and Literary
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“It seems then, say I, that you leave politics entirely out of the question, and never suppose, that a wise magistrate can justly be jealous of certain tenets of philosophy, such as those of Epicurus, which, denying a divine existence, and consequently a providence and a future state, seem to loosen, in a great measure, the ties of morality, and may be supposed, for that reason, pernicious to the peace of civil society.”

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Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: A Critical Edition
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“Ever since men became capable of free speculation, their actions, in innumerable important respects, have depended upon their theories as to the world and human life, as to what is good and what is evil. This is true in the present day as at any former time. To understand an age or a nation, we must understand its philosophy, and to understand its philosophy we must ourselves be in some degree philosophers. There is here a reciprocal causation: the circumstances of men s lives do much to determine their philosophy, but, conversely, their philosophy does much to determine their circumstances.”

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Author:Bertrand Russell
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“Moral philosophy is nothing else but the science of what is good, and evil, in the conversation, and society of mankind. Good, and evil, are names that signify our appetites, and aversions; which in different tempers, customs, and doctrines of men, are different.”

MenDifferentPhilosophyPoliticalEvilNamesMoralMankindMoralityConversationEthicsDoctrineGood And EvilCustomsAppetiteTemperAversionMoral PhilosophyLeviathan
Book:The Essential Leviathan: A Modernized Edition
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