Quotes about Ethics

a distinction has gradually sprung up between what is expedient and what is right. But the implication that something can be right without being expedient, or expedient without being right, is the most pernicious error that could possibly be introduced into human life.

These people who govern us should not be so carried away by their own political power that they turn away from peace, but neither should they embrace a peace that is dishonorable.

they follow nature as the most perfect guide to a good life. Now

The extreme of right is the extreme of wrong.

for my own part I cannot cordially approve, I merely tolerate, a philosopher who talks of setting bounds to the desires. Is it possible for desire to be kept within bounds? It ought to be destroyed, uprooted altogether.

That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before.

Anything that suffers and dies instead of us is Christ; if they didn't kill birds and fish they would have killed us. The animals die that we may live, they are substitute people, hunters in the fall killing the deer, that is Christ also. And we eat them, out of cans or otherwise; we are eaters of death, dead Christ-flesh resurrecting inside us, granting us life. Canned Spam, canned Jesus, even the plants must be Christ.

Your friend is intellectually honourable, Jimmy's mother would say. He doesn't lie to himself.

But sins must not be overlooked simply because the sinner is skilled.

It is shocking how many crimes the Bible contains. The Governor's wife should cut them all out and paste them into her scrapbook.

Things written down can cause a great deal of harm. All too often, people don't consider that.

you could believe you were living virtuously and also murder people if you were a fanatic.