Ethical Values Quotes

• Over the past two decades, we have clearly seen an erosion of ethical values.

  Arthur Levitt Jr

  Past, Erosion, Two

  "Fool.com: Doing Hard Time With Arthur Levitt [Special]". The Motley Fool Radio Show, www.fool.com. July 09, 2002.

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• As it was, we always misunderstood ourselves and rarely understood others. Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes.

  Oscar Wilde

  Mistake, Men, Names

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 4 (1891). A similar quotation occurs inWilde's play LadyWindermere's Fan, act 3 (1892).

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• I believe, indeed, that overemphasis on the purely intellectual attitude, often directed solely to the practical and factual, in our education, has led directly to the impairment of ethical values.

  Albert Einstein

  Wisdom, Attitude, Believe

  Albert Einstein (2010). “Ideas And Opinions”, p.53, Broadway Books

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Leadership, Men, Able

  Albert Schweitzer (1929). “Civilization and Ethics”

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• My own concern is primarily the terror and violence carried out by my own state... It is very easy to denounce the atrocities of someone else. That has about as much ethical value as denouncing atrocities that took place in the 18th century.

  Noam Chomsky

  Atrocities, Violence, Easy

  18 Copy quote

• Ideally, peace means the absence of violence. It is an ethical value.

  Mikhail Gorbachev

  Peace, Mean, Humanity

  Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, Green Cross International (2011). “Mikhail Gorbachev: Prophet of Change : from the Cold War to a Sustainable World”, p.53, CLAIRVIEW BOOKS

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Revolution that divests itself of ethical values thereby lays the foundation of injustice, deceit, and oppression for the future society.

  Emma Goldman

  Foundation, Deceit, Revolution

  Emma Goldman (2003). “My Disillusionment in Russia”, p.262, Courier Corporation

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Reliable scientific knowledge is value free and has no moral or ethical value. Science tells us how the world is. ... Dangers and ethical issue arise only when science is applied as technology.

  Lewis Wolpert

  Knowledge, Science, Technology

  "Who's to blame?" by Lewis Wolpert, www.theguardian.com. March 11, 2002.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Refined religion is aimed at realizing ethical values, including the fostering of human lives and human communities.

  Philip Kitcher

  Community, Realizing, Ethical

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is nothing wrong with being well off as long as money has a social and ethical value and is not the object of one's own greed.

  Aga Khan IV

  Long, Greed, Ethical

  66 Copy quote

• Today is the parent of tomorrow. The present casts its shadow far into the future. That is the law of life, individual and social. Revolution that divests itself of ethical values thereby lays the foundation of injustice, deceit, and oppression for the future society. The means used to prepare the future become its cornerstone.

  Emma Goldman

  Mean, Law, Parent

  "My Disillusionment in Russia". Book by Emma Goldman, 1925.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Religion must affirm, in the clearest terms, that morality and ethical values are not mere decorative frills of personal opinion, not subjective superstructure, but intrinsic laws of the cosmos built into the heart of reality.

  Bhikkhu Bodhi

  Heart, Reality, Personal Opinions

  18 Copy quote

• Secular humanism is avowedly non-religious. It is a eupraxsophy (good practical wisdom), which draws its basic principles and ethical values from science, ethics, and philosophy.

  Paul Kurtz

  Religious, Philosophy, Atheism

  22 Copy quote

• In contemporary society secular humanism has been singled out by critics and proponents alike as a position sharply distinguishable from any religious formulation. Religious fundamentalists in the United States have waged a campaign against secular humanism, claiming that it is a rival "religion" and seeking to root it out from American public life. Secular humanism is avowedly non-religious. It is a eupraxsophy (good practical wisdom), which draws its basic principles and ethical values from science, ethics, and philosophy.

  Paul Kurtz

  Religious, Philosophy, Roots

  6 Copy quote

• Humanists hold that ethical values are relative to human experience and need not be derived from theological or metaphysical foundations.

  Paul Kurtz

  Atheism, Foundation, Needs

  29 Copy quote

• True freedom is not advanced in the permissive society, which confuses freedom with license to do anything whatever and which in the name of freedom proclaims a kind of general amorality. It is a caricature of freedom to claim that people are free to organize their lives with no reference to moral values, and to say that society does not have to ensure the protection and advancement of ethical values. Such an attitude is destructive of freedom and peace.

  Pope John Paul II

  Peace, Attitude, Names

  15 Copy quote

• My parents did great and provided well, and gave all their kids personal, moral, ethical values, not a belief that we were entitled to something.

  Bonnie Hammer

  Kids, Parent, Belief

  "Bonnie Hammer: She is Sci Fi". Interview with Porter Anderson, www.cnn.com. October 9, 2001.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• No man who believes that all is for the best in this suffering world can keep his ethical values unimpaired, since he is always having to find excuses for pain and misery.

  Bertrand Russell

  Pain, Believe, Men

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.217, Psychology Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes. Moralists had, as a rule, regarded it as a mode of warning, had claimed for it a certain ethical efficacy in the formation of character, had praised it as something that taught us what to follow and showed us what to avoid. But there was no motive power in experience. It was as little of an active cause as conscience itself. All that it really demonstrated was that our future would be the same as our past, and that the sin we had done once, and with loathing, we would do many times, and with joy.

  Oscar Wilde

  Mistake, Character, Past

  Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Penny Dreadfuls: Tales of Horror: Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.719, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Real democracy is only possible when people truly imbibe democratic principles and respect ethical values above everything else.

  Nirmala Srivastava

  Love, Wisdom, Real

  5 Copy quote

• I have never obtained any ethical values from my scientific work.

  Albert Einstein

  Ethical, Values

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.26, Princeton University Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Undeniably, character does count for our citizens, out communities, and our Nation, and this week we celebrate the importance of character in our individual lives... core ethical values of trustworthiness, fairness, responsibility, caring, respect, and citizenship form the foundation of our democracy, our economy, and our society... Instilling sound character in our children is essential to maintaining the strength of our Nation into the 21st century.

  William J. Clinton

  Children, Responsibility, Character

  7 Copy quote

• There is nothing divine about morality; it is a purely human affair. If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed. What the individual can do is to give a fine example, and to have the courage to uphold ethical values .. in a society of cynics.

  Albert Einstein

  Sorry, Punishment, People

  23 Copy quote

• I believe, indeed, that overemphasis on the purely intellectual attitude, often directed solely to the practical and factual, in our education, has led directly to the impairment of ethical values. I am not thinking so much of the dangers with which technical progress has directly confronted mankind, as of the stifling of mutual human considerations by a 'matter-of-fact' habit of thought which has come to lie like a killing frost upon human relations. Without 'ethical culture' there is no salvation for humanity.

  Albert Einstein

  Attitude, Educational, Lying

  Albert Einstein (2010). “Ideas And Opinions”, p.53, Broadway Books

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Man is unique in that he has plans, purpose and goals which require the need for criteria of choice. The need for ethical value is within man whose future may largely be determined by the choice he make

  George Bernard Shaw

  Unique, Men, Goal

  14 Copy quote