Ethical Quotes - Page 11

• Agnosticism is not properly described as a "negative" creed, nor indeed as a creed of any kind, except in so far as it expresses absolute faith in the validity of a principle which is as much ethical as intellectual.

  Thomas Huxley

  Intellectual, Principles, Negative

  Thomas Henry Huxley (2012). “Lectures and Essays”, p.247, tredition

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• A code of ethics cannot be developed overnight by edict or official pronouncement. It is developed by years of practice and performance of duty according to high ethical standards. It must be self-policing. Without such a code, a professional soldier or a group soon loses identity and effectiveness. Once we know our job, have a genuine code of ethics, and maintain unquestioned personal integrity, we have met the first and most demanding challenge of leadership.

  Silas L. Copeland

  Jobs, Integrity, Army

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• Man is an animal with primary instincts of survival. Consequently his ingenuity has developed first and his soul afterwards. The progress of science is far ahead of man's ethical behavior.

  Charlie Chaplin

  Life, Science, Animal

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• Character is ethical and moral strength. People of good character have the moral awareness and strength to know the good, love the good and do the good.

  Michael Josephson

  Good Love, Character, People

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• A person is said to have good character when their habits, dispositions and conduct reflect a deep commitment to ethical virtues and moral principles.

  Michael Josephson

  Character, Commitment, Principles

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• The formation of character in young people is educationally a different task from, and a prior task to, the discussion of the great, difficult, ethical controversies of the day. First things first. And planting the ideas of virtue, of good traits in the young, comes first. In the moral life, as in life itself, we take one step at a time. Every field has its complexities and controversies. And so does ethics. And every field has its basics. So too with values.

  William Bennett

  Character, Ideas, People

  "The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories". Book edited by William Bennett, reason.com. 1993.

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• Ethical existence [is] the highest manifestation of spirituality.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Spiritual, Existence, Manifestation

  Albert Schweitzer (1956). “An anthology”

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• Under the Providence of God, our means of education are the grand machinery by which the 'raw material' of human nature can be worked up into inventors and discoverers, into skilled artisans and scientific farmers, into scholars and jurists, into the founders of benevolent institutions, and the great expounders of ethical and theological science.

  Horace Mann

  Education, Mean, Science

  Horace Mann (1957). “The Republic and the School: The Education of Free Men”

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• The meaning that we are seeking in evolution is its meaning to us, to man. The ethics of evolution must be human ethics. It is one of the many unique qualities of man, the new sort of animal, that he is the only ethical animal. The ethical need and its fulfillment are also products of evolution, but they have been produced in man alone.

  George Gaylord Simpson

  Science, Animal, Unique

  George Gaylord Simpson (1956). “The Meaning of Evolution”

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• Out of our first century of national life we evolved the ethical principle that it was not right or just that an honest and industrious man should live and die in misery. He was entitled to some degree of sympathy and security. Our conscience declared against the honest workman's becoming a pauper, but our eyes told us that he very often did.

  Frances Perkins

  Eye, Men, Ethical Principles

  Frances Perkins (1934). “People at work”

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• I think that my strong determination for justice comes from the very strong, dynamic personality of my father ... I have rarely ever met a person more fearless and courageous than my father ... The thing that I admire most about my dad is his genuine Christian character. He is a man of real integrity, deeply committed to moral and ethical principles. He is conscientious in all of his undertakings ... If I had a problem I could always call Daddy.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Christian, Fathers Day, Strong

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• All attempts to adapt our ethical code to our situation in the technological age have failed.

  Max Born

  Technology, Age, Ethics

  "My Life & My Views". Book by Max Born, 1968.

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• We like to pretend that our generous impulses come naturally. But the reality is we often become our kindest, most ethical selves only by seeing what it feels like to be a selfish jackass first. It's the reason... we have to get burned before we understand the power of fire; the reason our most meaningful relationships are so often those that continued beyond the very juncture at which they came the closest to ending.

  Cheryl Strayed

  Meaningful, Selfish, Reality

  "Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar". Book by Cheryl Strayed, July 10, 2012.

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• If I pick up a book with vampires on the cover, I want there to be vampires. If I pick up a book with spaceships on the cover, I want spaceships. If I see one with dragons, I want there to be dragons inside the book. Proper labeling. Ethical labeling.

  Margaret Atwood

  Book, Dragons, Vampire

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• Every night I go over what I did in the day, in ethical or moral terms. Have I treated people properly? Did I tell the truth?

  Jeanne Moreau

  Night, People, Moral

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• The American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C., and the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history.

  Nancy Pelosi

  Honesty, Integrity, People

  "Year in Review Dominated by Iraq". Interview with Linda Wertheimer, www.npr.org. December 30, 2006.

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• I'm very involved with PETA - People for Ethical Treatment of Animals - and Greenpeace and a lot of women's shelter and clothing giveaways.

  Pink

  Animal, People, Shelter

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• 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

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• Mr. Franzen said he and Mr. Wallace, over years of letters and conversations about the ethical role of the novelist, had come to the joint conclusion that the purpose of writing fiction was “a way out of loneliness.” (NY Times article on the memorial service of David Foster Wallace.)

  Jonathan Franzen

  Loneliness, Writing, Years

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• We live in a world full of accidents finally in which on aesthetic principles have a consistency of which we can be sure. Right and wrong we will struggle with forever striving to create and maintain an ethical balance. Right and wrong we will struggle with forever, striving to create and maintain an ethical balance; but the shimmer of summer rain under the street lamps or the great flashing glare of artillery against a night sky – such brutal beauty is beyond dispute.

  Anne Rice

  Summer, Rain, Struggle

  Anne Rice (2010). “The Queen of the Damned”, p.8, Ballantine Books

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• In the end ... success or failure will come down to an ethical decision, one on which those now living will be judged for generations to come.

  E. O. Wilson

  Decision, Generations, Ends

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• Perhaps, indeed, there are no truly universal ethics: or to put it more precisely, the ways in which ethical principles are interpreted will inevitably differ across cultures and eras. Yet, these differences arise chiefly at the margins. All known societies embrace the virtues of truthfulness, integrity, loyalty, fairness; none explicitly endorse falsehood, dishonesty, disloyalty, gross inequity. (Five Minds for the Future, p136)

  Howard Gardner

  Loyalty, Integrity, Ethical Principles

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• Here's what I don't think works: An economic system that was founded in the 16th century and another that was founded in the 19th century. I'm tired of this discussion of capitalism and socialism; we live in the 21st century, we need an economic system that has democracy as its underpinnings and an ethical code.

  Michael Moore

  Tired, Thinking, Democracy

  "DealBook’s Interview With Michael Moore". dealbook.nytimes.com. September 23, 2009.

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• I would not say that ethical behavior is not possible for the atheist or agnostic. It is. A couple of pretty good examples are Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre. However, I will have to say that if we take the human lot as a whole, these two men must be seen as exceptions.

  Huston Smith

  Atheist, Couple, Men

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• I was raised with no religious training or influence. Except the influence was to be a moral and ethical person at the secular level. And to be a peace marcher, an activist for civil rights, peace and justice.

  Anne Lamott

  Religious, Rights, Justice

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