Best ethics & reason Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“American traditions and the American ethic require us to be truthful, but the most important reason is that truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. It is as simple as that.”

Important Reason Truth Lying Simple Worst Truth Is Ethics Tradition Propaganda Truthful Credible Believable Persuasive Being Truthful American Tradition

Author:Edward R. Murrow

“It is now generally accepted that the roots of our ethics lie in patterns of behavior that evolved among our pre-human ancestors, the social mammals and that we retain within our biological nature elements of these evolved responses. We have learned considerably more about this responses, and we are beginning to to understand how they interact with our capacity to reason.”

Humans Reason Lying Social Behavior Elements Ethics Capacity Roots Response Patterns Accepted Ancestor Mammals

Book:The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress

Source: The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress

“Secure in whom we are, rooted in one particular tradition or none at all, we have no reason to fear discovering God in the truth and wisdom of many traditions. Love casts out fear inviting us into happiness for all people and Creation.”

People Reason Creation Particular Ethics Tradition Casts Secure No Reason Discovering Rooted Inviting

Author:Robert V. Taylor

“Mr. J.S. Mill speaks, in his celebrated work, "Utilitarianism," of the social feelings as a "powerful natural sentiment," and as "the natural basis of sentiment for utilitarian morality," but on the previous page he says, "if, as is my own belief, the moral feelings are not innate, but acquired, they are not for that reason less natural." It is with hesitation that I venture to differ from so profound a thinker, but it can hardly be disputed that the social feelings are instinctive or innate in the lower animals; and why should they not be so in man?”

Source: The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

“If the subjectivist view hold true, thinking cannot be of any help in determining the desirability of any goal in itself. The acceptability of ideals, the criteria for our actions and beliefs, the leading principles of ethics and politics, all our ultimate decisions are made to depend upon factors other than reason. They are supposed to be matters of choice and predilection, and it has become meaningless to speak of truth in making practical, moral or esthetic decisions.”

“As to ethics, unfortunately, we are still at sea. We never did have any popular base for what little ethics we knew, except the religious theories, and now that our faith is shaken in those theories we cannot account for ethics at all. It is no wonder we behave badly, we are literally ignorant of the laws of ethics, which is the simplest of sciences, the most necessary, the most continuously needed. The childish misconduct of our 'revolted youth' is quite equaled by that of older people, and neither young nor old seem to have any understanding of the reasons why conduct is 'good' or 'bad.”

Source: The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: An Autobiography

“I suppose all of us - we have the old Protestant work ethic of feeling guilty when you're not working, and getting a buzz from feeling like you're really busy. That's the reason to sort of carry on.”

Reason Feelings Like You Ethics Busy Guilty Work Ethic Protestants Buzz Feeling Guilty Protestant Work Ethic

Author:Jonny Greenwood

“The Kantian philosophy is no more than at best a half-secularized version of such a theocratic ethics, with "Reason" in the place of God. This does not amount to much more than a change of names.”

Doe Reason Philosophy Names Half Amount Ethics Versions

Book:Outside Ethics

Source: Outside Ethics

“At the end of the day, you are solely responsible for your success and your failure. And the sooner you realize that, you accept that, and integrate that into your work ethic, you will start being successful. As long as you blame others for the reason you aren't where you want to be, you will always be a failure.”

Want Long Ends Reason Realizing Accepting Successful Ethics Responsible Blame Being Successful The End Of The Day Be You Work Ethic Integrating

Author:Erin Cummings

“Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons.”

Reason Moral Morality Integrity Ethics Immoral

Book:Jude the Obscure

Source: Jude the Obscure

“There's a reason survivors choose not to go to the police, and that's because they're treated as the criminals. The rapists are innocent until proven guilty, but survivors are guilty until proven innocent - at least in the eyes of the police.”

“A choice is the root of all morality. Without choice, one can have no moral code. In a vacuum bereft of alternatives, there can be no values. And without values, there can be no reason for a code of ethics. What gives our lives meaning is which alternatives we choose. If we have no options, if we can take but one path, we are by definition slaves.”

Ifs Giving Reason Values Choices Moral Path Our Lives Morality Ethics Roots Slave Definitions Alternatives Code Meaning Of Life No Reason Vacuums Life Means Moral Code Bereft Code Of Ethics

Author:Dave Galanter

“The demands of the science, of the ethics and of the reason are superior to the demands of the people!”

People Reason Science Demand Ethics Superiors

Author:Mehmet Murat Ildan

“The science of logic never made a man reason rightly, and the science of ethics never made a man behave rightly. The most such sciences can do is to help us to catch ourselves up and check ourselves, if we start to reason or to behave wrongly; and to criticise ourselves more articulately after we have made mistakes.”

Ifs Men Art Made Reason Helping Can Do Mistake Psychology Teaching Ethics Logic Checks Behave Made A Mistake Criticise Teaching Art

Book:Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals

Source: Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals

“One reason for the decline in moral values is that the world has invented a new, constantly changing and undependable standard of moral conduct referred to as "situational ethics." Now, individuals define good and evil as being adjustable according to each situation; this is in direct contrast to the proclaimed God-given absolute standard: "Thou shalt not!"-as in "Thou shalt not steal".”

World Reason Values Evil Individual Given Situation Moral Standards Ethics Direct Absolutes Stealing Good And Evil Contrast Decline Moral Values Absolutism

Author:David B. Haight

“There cannot any one moral rule be proposed whereof a man may not justly demand a reason.”

Men May Reason Moral Morality Demand Ethics

Book:An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Source: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

“When a man has no reason to trust himself, he trusts in luck.”

Men Reason Trust Ethics Luck No Reason Trust No One

Author:E. W. Howe

“To think the welfare and the goodness of the next generations is indeed a good ethics, but there is much greater ethics than this: To think the welfare and the goodness of the current generations, the very people of now! The reason is simple: Future may not exist, it is only a possibility, but the people of now are not possibility, they are here!”

People Thinking May Reason Next Simple Greater Generations Possibility Goodness Ethics Currents Welfare Next Generation Current Generation Good Ethics

Author:Mehmet Murat Ildan

“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.”

Reason Philosophy Action Passion Ought Office Ethics Slave Philosopher

Author:David Hume

“The rules of morality are not the conclusion of our reason.”

Reason Morality Ethics Conclusion Pregnancy

Author:David Hume

“Journalism and the questions of journalistic ethics, and why certain stories are put on the air, when, how and for what reasons, are big questions in our culture and society.”

Reason Stories Bigs Certain Culture Air Ethics Journalism Big Questions Journalistic

Author:Thomas Sadoski

“Characters in Hollywood movies encounter a lot of car chases. Characters in novels rarely wash their hands or do their laundry. And in the work of moral psychologists, people deliberate and reflect a lot. They deliberate, one sometimes feels, whenever they perform an action, and certainly whenever they act for good reasons.”

People Sometimes Reason Character Action Moral Novel Psychology Car Ethics Psychologist Laundry

Book:Unprincipled Virtue: An Inquiry Into Moral Agency

Source: Unprincipled Virtue: An Inquiry Into Moral Agency

“Kant's description of most ethical duties reads more like a description of moral virtues and vices. Once we see this, we see that Kantian ethics is indeed a kind of virtue ethics, and that it does not "divide the heart from the head" (to anticipate one of your later questions) but instead recognizes the deep truth that reason and emotion are not opposites.”

Heart Kind Doe Reason Emotion Moral Virtue Duty Ethics Opposites Vices Description Ethical Divides Anticipate Moral Virtues Reason And Emotion

Author:Allen W. Wood

“In trying to develop an impartial, expansive ethic we are trying to get ethical systems to do something which they did not evolve in order to do. This doesn't mean that it can't be done or that we shouldn't try to expand the reach of our ethical frameworks, only that there are reasons to be skeptical about its success.”

Trying Mean Reason Done Order Ethics Evolve Ethical Framework Skeptical

Author:Dale Jamieson

“A big reason why we were able to and have been able to continue to succeed is that we had a very intense work ethic, right from the beginning. There was a do-or-die attitude toward the work. It wasn't seen as a little "club." It was like, "This is your life." We would spend hours and hours rehearsing and endlessly rewriting. We took it very seriously right off the bat. And we were also extremely critical of each other, which was another thing that was unique. A lot of comedy ensembles have a hard time being critical of each other, because they don't want to hurt each other's feelings.”

Reason Feelings Hours Hurt Attitude Comedy Succeed Unique Ethics Intense Hard Times Work Ethic

Author:Michael Showalter

“I do think that there is a very unclear level of conduct in the Trump administration. That's one reason you're seeing this among so many different secretaries. Again, Trump himself has been bending ethics rules left and right.”

Thinking Different Reason Ethics Secretary

Author:Ezra Klein

“Have a very good reason for everything you do.”

Reason Success Business Integrity Ethics Very Good Motivational Business Reason For Everything

Author:Laurence Olivier

“We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than only freedom can make security more secure.”

Ifs Reason Freedom Plans Security Ethics Secure

Author:Karl Popper

“Still, even the most admirable of atheists is nothing more than a moral parasite, living his life based on borrowed ethics. This is why, when pressed, the atheist will often attempt to hide his lack of conviction in his own beliefs behind some poorly formulated utilitarianism, or argue that he acts out of altruistic self-interest. But this is only post-facto rationalization, not reason or rational behavior.”

“It is almost impossible systematically to constitute a natural moral law. Nature has no principles. She furnishes us with no reason to believe that human life is to be respected. Nature, in her indifference, makes no distinction between good and evil.”

Source: The Revolt of the Angels: Works by France

“I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature.”

Source: Ideas and Opinions

“I have found some of the best reasons I ever had for remaining at the bottom simply by looking at the men at the top.”

Men Reason Found He Man Integrity Ethics Bottom Imitation

Book:Tailor blood and other notes and comments

Source: Tailor blood and other notes and comments

“The reason welfare is bad is not because it costs too much, nor because it "undermines the work ethic," but because it is intrinsically at odds with the way human beings come to live satisfying lives.”

Way Humans Reason Human Beings Liberty Poverty Too Much Cost Ethics Libertarian Welfare Satisfying Libertarianism Odds Work Ethic

Author:Charles A. Murray

“Normativity, I believe, is very different from motivating force. Neither includes, or implies, the other. Other animals can be motivated by their desires and beliefs. Only we can understand and respond to reasons.”

Believe Different Reason Action Desire Belief Force I Believe Animal Moral Psychology Ethics Motivated

Author:Derek Parfit

“While reasons are provided by the facts,...rationality...depends instead on our beliefs. [...] [I]f I believe falsely that my hotel is on fire, it may be rational for me to jump into the canal. But I have no reason to jump. I merely think I do. And, if some dangerous treatment would save your life, but you don't know that fact, it would be irrational for you to take this treatment, but that is what you have most reason to do.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Believe May Reason Facts Would Be Action Belief I Believe Moral Psychology Fire Dangerous Depends Ethics Rational Hotel Treatment No Reason Irrational Rationality Canals

Author:Derek Parfit

“I've decided to do it, for the pure and simple reason that I just think it's the right thing to do.”

Thinking Reason Action Simple Moral Psychology Pure Ethics Decided Things To Do Right Thing

Author:Charlie Crist

“must acknowledge, that to act properly is much more valuable than to think justly or reason acutely.”

Thinking Reason Action Moral Psychology Ethics Valuable Acknowledge

Book:Essays on the powers of the human mind: An essay on quantity. An analysis of Aristotl's logic

Source: Essays on the powers of the human mind: An essay on quantity. An analysis of Aristotl's logic

“A free man, who lives among ignorant people, tries as much as he can to refuse their benefits. .. He who lives under the guidance of reason endeavours as much as possible to repay his fellow's hatred, rage, contempt, etc. with love and nobleness.”

People Men Trying Reason Benefits Ethics Hatred Fellows Refuse Rage Ignorant Guidance Etc Contempt Free Man Endeavour Ignorant People

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“Our brains are separate and independent enough from our genes to rebel against them.. we do so in a small way everytime we use contraception. There is no reason why we should not rebel in a large way too.”

Way Should Reason Enough Use Brain Ethics Independent Reason Why No Reason Rebel Genes Contraception Deep Ecology

Book:The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary edition

Source: The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary edition

“Ultimately a highly complex sentiment, having its first origin in the social instincts, largely guided by the approbation of our fellow-men, ruled by reason, self-interest, and in later times by deep religious feelings, confirmed by instruction and habit, all combined, constitute our moral sense or conscience.”

Source: Evolutionary Writings: including the Autobiographies

“Already a couple of the faithful have sent in checks for a foundation memorial to the innocents who perished at the hands of the ninja at Waco. ... I have been criticized by referring to our federal masked men as "ninja" ... Let us reflect upon the fact that a man who covers his face shows reason to be ashamed of what he is doing. A man who takes it upon himself to shed blood while concealing his identity is a revolting perversion of the warrior ethic. It has long been my conviction that a masked man with a gun is a target. I see no reason to change that view.”

“An autocratic system of coercion, in my opinion, soon degenerates. For force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels. For this reason I have always been passionately opposed to systems such as we see in Italy and Russia to-day.”

Men Believe Reason Force I Believe Opinion Genius Morality Lows Ethics Russia Tyrants Coercion Degenerates Scoundrels

Book:Ideas and Opinions

Source: Ideas and Opinions

“Ethics evolve naturally, and we trample upon them with laws created by reason and experience.”

Reason Law Morality Ethics Evolve

Author:Winston Churchill

“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.”

Believe Has Beens Reason Accepting Teacher Written Generations Heard Authority Benefits Ethics Tradition Agree Careful Statements Observation Analysis Live By Sage Elders Conjecture

Author:Gautama Buddha

“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.”

Source: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: A Critical Edition

“Just why is Yosemite climbing so different ? Why does it have techniques, ethics and equipment all of its own ? The basic reason lies in the rock itself. Nowhere else in the world is the rock so exfoliated, so glacier-polished and so devoid of handholds. All of the climbing lines follow vertical crack systems. Every piton crack, every handhold is a vertical one. Special techniques and equipment have evolved through absolute necessity.”

World Doe Different Reason Lying Lines Special Rocks Ethics Absolutes Technique Cracks Climbing Equipment Polished Vertical Glaciers Yosemite

Author:Yvon Chouinard

“There has been a controversy started of late, much better worth examination, concerning the general foundation of Morals; whether they be derived from Reason, or from Sentiment; whether we attain the knowledge of them by a chain of argument and induction, or by an immediate feeling and finer internal sense; whether, like all sound judgement of truth and falsehood, they should be the same to every rational intelligent being; or whether, like the perception of beauty and deformity, they be founded entirely on the particular fabric and constitution of the human species.”

“Truth is disputable; not taste: what exists in the nature of things is the standard of our judgement; what each man feels within himself is the standard of sentiment. Propositions in geometry may be proved, systems in physics may be controverted; but the harmony of verse, the tenderness of passion, the brilliancy of wit, must give immediate pleasure. No man reasons concerning another's beauty; but frequently concerning the justice or injustice of his actions.”

Source: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Revision of Great Book

“These arguments on each side (and many more might be produced) are so plausible, that I am apt to suspect, they may, the one as well as the other, be solid and satisfactory, and that reason and sentiment concur in almost all moral determinations and conclusions.”

Wells May Reason Might Sides Moral Morality Ethics Determination Argument Conclusion Suspects Sentiments Plausible Concur

Book:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

Source: An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

“Obviously, I believe that to pursue the American Dream is not only futile but self-destructive because ultimately it destroys everything and everyone involved with it. By definition it must, because it nurtures everything except those things that are important: integrity, ethics, truth, our very heart and soul. Why? The reason is simple: because Life/life is giving, not getting.”

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Ethics Quotes