Quotes about Ethics

To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

In any situation, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The second best thing is the wrong thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.

If we say of a boy or a man, "He is of good character," we mean that he does not do a great many things that are wrong, and we also mean that he does do a great many things which imply much effort of will and readiness to face what is disagreeable. He must not steal, he must not be intemperate, he must not be vicious in any way; he must not be mean or brutal; he must not bully the weak. In fact, he must refrain from whatever is evil. But besides refraining from evil, he must do good.

Peace is normally a great good, and normally it coincides with righteousness, but it is righteousness and not peace which should bind the conscience of a nation as it should bind the conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor an individual can surrender conscience to another's keeping.

Let these innocent people be careful not to invest in corporations where those in control are not men of probity, men who respect the laws; above all let them avoid the men who make it their one effort to evade or defy the laws.

To educate a person without teaching ethics is to create a menace to society.

The most practical kind of politics is the politics of Decency.

We must exercise the largest charity towards the wrong-doer that is compatible with relentless war against the wrong-doing. We must be just to others, generous to others, and yet we must realize that it is a shameful and a wicked thing not to withstand oppression with high heart and ready hand.

In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.

There must be the keenest sense of duty, and with it must go the joy of living; there must be shame at the thought of shirking the hard work of the world, and at the same time delight in the many-sided beauty of life

But we must keep steadily in mind that no people were ever yet benefited by riches if their prosperity corrupted their virtue.

If I must choose between righteousness and peace, I choose righteousness.