Ethical Quotes - Page 17

• The axioms of physics translate the laws of ethics. Thus, "the whole is greater than its part;" "reaction is equal to action;" "the smallest weight may be made to lift the greatest, the difference of weight being compensated by time;" and many the like propositions, which have an ethical as well as physical sense. These propositions have a much more extensive and universal sense when applied to human life, than when confined to technical use.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Science, Law, Differences

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations”, p.153

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• Everyone seems to assume that the unscrupulous parts of journalism will be the frivolous or jocular parts. This is against all ethical experience. Jokes are generally honest. Complete solemnity is almost always dishonest. The writer of the snippet merely refers to a frivolous and fugitive fact in a frivolous and fugitive way. The writer of the leading article has to write about a fact he has known for 20 minutes as though he has studied it for 20 years.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Writing, Years, Way

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• Daily contact with some teachers is itself all-sided ethical education for the child without a spoken precept. Here, too, the real advantage of male over female teachers,especially for boys, is seen in their superior physical strength,which often, if highly estimated, gives real dignity and commands real respect, and especially in the unquestionably greater uniformity of their moods and their discipline.

  G. Stanley Hall

  Teacher, Children, Real

  "Youth: it's education, regimen and hygiene". Book by G. Stanley Hall, 1906.

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• As far as male and female are concerned, difference is a biological fact, whereas equality is a political, ethical and social concept. No rule of nature or of social organization says that the sexes have to be the same or do the same things in order to be social, political and economic equals.

  Alice S Rossi

  Sex, Equality, Order

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• One of the most depressing features of the ethical side of the matter is that instead of such methods arousing contempt they are more or less openly admired. And this is logical. Canonise 'business success,' and men who made a success like that of the Standard Oil Trust become national heroes!

  Ida Tarbell

  Depressing, Business, Hero

  Ida M. Tarbell (2012). “The History of the Standard Oil Company: Briefer Version”, p.224, Courier Corporation

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• Some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them.

  Sam Harris

  Believe, People, May

  "The End of Faith". Book by Sam Harris, samharris.org. August 11, 2004.

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• Nothing that has ever been thought and said with a clear mind and pure ethical strength is totally in vain; even if it comes froma weak hand and is imperfectly formed, it inspires the ethical spirit to constantly renewed creation.

  Stefan Zweig

  Inspirational, Hands, Inspire

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• The feminization of America has made emotions sacrosanct while condemning as cold and unfeeling rigorous concepts such as duty andhonor. Propelled by incessant hosannas to woman's "finer" this and "softer" that, we make emotional decisions instead of ethical ones and then congratulate ourselves for having "heart.

  Florence King

  Heart, Emotional, America

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• One of the interesting things about the ancient Greeks is that they really didn't have our conception of individual rights. They didn't have our conception of all lives matters. And it was really was true for them, that certain lives matter a lot more than others. It didn't dawn on them that all lives, although different, can be lives of equal mattering. And that is actually something a huge ethical lesson.

  Rebecca Goldstein

  Rights, Interesting, Greek

  "What Do We Have To Teach Plato?". "Here And Now" with Jeremy Hobson, news.stlpublicradio.org. April 22, 2014.

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• Ethics and power are separate. Ethics and morality. I think life would be miserable if there weren't some kind of code that people operated by, but history is full of many, many people who have gotten power by very unethical means, and people who were very ethical, who get no power, people who have the most brilliant, lovely, wonderful, nice intentions and bring about horrible things in the world because they don't know how to play the power game.

  Robert Greene

  Nice, Mean, Thinking

  Source: bigthink.com

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• Philosophy is an odd thing... There is no particular Socratic or Dimechian or Kantian way to live your life. They don't offer ethical codes and standards by which to live your life.

  Stephen Fry

  Philosophy, Live Your Life, Odd Things

  "Big Think Interview With Stephen Fry". bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

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• If we empower ourselves with responsibility over our actions, responsibility over our destinies and responsibility for directing and maintaining and creating our own ethical and moral frameworks, which is the most important thing really isn’t it because perhaps the greatest insult to humanism is this idea that mankind needs a god in order to have a moral framework.

  Stephen Fry

  Responsibility, Destiny, Order

  "The Importance of Unbelief". Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

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• You can't deny that religion has done some good. It organizes lots of anti-poverty programs and soup kitchens and missionary work. But I would say that, first of all, all those things can be accomplished without religion. You can be ethical, somebody who does the right thing without feeling that he has to in order to get his ass saved in the next life.

  Bill Maher

  Soup Kitchens, Order, Feelings

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• No ethic is as ethical as the work ethic.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Work, Work Ethic, Ethics

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• Neither moral relations nor the moral law can swing in vacuo. Their only habitat can be a mind which feels them; and no world composed of merely physical facts can possibly be a world to which ethical propositions apply.

  William James

  Swings, Law, Mind

  William James (2016). “William James: Essays and Lectures”, p.237, Routledge

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• Our ego ideal is precious to us because it repairs a loss of our earlier childhood, the loss of our image of self as perfect and whole, the loss of a major portion of our infantile, limitless, ain't-I-wonderful narcissism which we had to give up in the face of compelling reality. Modified and reshaped into ethical goals and moral standards and a vision of what at our finest we might be, our dream of perfection lives on--our lost narcissism lives on--in our ego ideal.

  Judith Viorst

  Dream, Giving Up, Growing Up

  Judith Viorst (2010). “Necessary Losses: The Loves Illusions Dependencies and Impossible Ex”, p.140, Simon and Schuster

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• With intellectuals, moral thought is often less a tonic that quickens ethical action than a narcotic that deadens it.

  Louis Kronenberger

  Action, Moral, Narcotics

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• Ethical and cultural desegregation. It is a contradiction in terms to scream race pride and equality while at the same time spurning Negro teachers and self-association.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Teacher, Pride, Race

  Zora Neale Hurston (2002). “Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters”, Doubleday Books

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• The adolescent frequently supposes that she is breaking out of the confines of her mundane, schoolgirl existence simply in order to break rules and defy authority. . . . She rids herself of the "oughts" and "musts" that convert every minor infraction into a sin of omission or commission. It certainly does not occur to her or to her family that by questioning the moral standards she erected as a child she is taking the first steps in her journey toward a firmer, more reasonable, less harsh, more ethical form of conscience.

  Louise J. Kaplan

  Children, Journey, Omission

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• Knowledge is not a loose-leaf notebook of facts. Above all, it is a responsibility for the integrity of what we are, primarily of what we are as ethical creatures.

  Jacob Bronowski

  Notebook, Integrity, Responsibility

  Jacob Bronowski (1976). “The ascent of man”

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• As Muslims, our interests are our values. In any society, be it in Western or Muslim-majority countries, our duty is that of critical loyalty: Staying loyal to our countries by always being critically engaged in the name of the principles of justice, equality and human brotherhood. We should be the ethical and moral voice wherever we are by saying that, even though we understand economic and geo-strategic interests, we cannot accept a violation of these principles by any society.

  Tariq Ramadan

  Loyalty, Country, Names

  "Tariq Ramadan: My Absence Would Certainly Be The Most Powerful Speech I Have Ever Given At ISNA". The Islamic Monthly Interview, www.theislamicmonthly.com. August 14, 2014.

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• To have a sense of sin means to feel guilty at there being an ethical choice to make, a guilt which, however "good" I may become, remains unchanged.

  W. H. Auden

  Mean, Choices, Guilt

  "The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays" by W. H. Auden, ("The Guilty Vicarage"), (p. 157), 1962.

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• Enjoy your work and have ethical standards.

  Walter Schloss

  Ethical Standards, Investing, Enjoy

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• Gun producer and the killer is the same thing! Be ethical, stop producing guns! Be human, for God's sake, for there shall never be peace of mind for the wicked!

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Peace, Gun, Mind

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• All countries must be governed by the modern people; they must be governed by the progressive people; they must be governed by those who believe in the reason and science; they must be governed by the compassionate and just, by the ethical and honest, by the nonviolent and peaceful people; they must be governed by the libertarians; they must be governed by the people who believe in the enlightenment and who refuse to shape the society based on some childish religious stories!

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Country, Religious, Believe

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