Gandhian Ethics Quotes

We have then, in the first part of The Faerie Queene, four of the seven deadly sins depicted in the more important passages of the four several books; those sins being much more elaborately and powerfully represented than the virtues, which are opposed to them, and which are personified in the titular heroes of the respective books. The alteration which made these personified virtues the centre each of a book was probably part of the reconstruction on the basis of Aristotle Ethics.
The nature of the debt to Aristotle suggests that Spenser did not borrow directly from the Greek, but by way of modern translations. ~ Janet Spens

The small family living unit lacks space, Earth, other animals, seasons, natural temperatures, and so on. The pet is either sterilized or sexually isolated, extremely limited in his exercise, deprived of almost all other animal contact, and fed with artificial foods. This is the material process which lies behind the truism the pets come to resemble their masters or mistresses. They are creatures of their owners way of life. ~ John Berger

Responsibility's like a string we can only see the middle of. Both ends are out of sight. ~ William McFee

Finn had seen in the people he'd once contended with, and sometimes even among his own colleagues - a policy in which killing was the first option rather than the last, because lives counted for nothing against the security of guaranteed silence. ~ Kevin Wignall

My country, 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing ... Long may our land be bright, With freedom's holy light; Protect us by Thy might, Great God, our King. ~ Samuel Francis Smith

I'm beginning to wonder," said Kent, sitting down now on an overturned wooden tub. "Who do I serve? Why am I here?"
You are here, because, in the expanding ethical ambiguity of our situation, you are steadfast in your righteousness. It is to you, our banished friend, that we all turn - a light amid the dark dealings of family and politics. You are the moral backbone on which the rest of us hang our bloody bits. Without you we are merely wiggly masses of desire writhing in our own devious bile."
Really?" asked the old knight.
Aye," said I.
I'm not sure I want to keep company with you lot, then. ~ Christopher Moore

No morality can be founded on authority, even if the authority were divine. ~ A.J. Ayer

In ethics, prudence is not an important virtue, but in the world it is almost everything. ~ Mason Cooley

To give preference to the life of a being simply because that being is a member of our species would put us in the same position as racists who give preference to those who are members of their race. ~ Peter Singer

We must promote solid traits such as work ethics, a dignified lifestyle, matching actions to rhetoric, performance rather than grandstanding. ~ Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

What is worse than doing evil, is being evil" (Ethics, p.67). To lie is wrong, but what is worse than the lie is the liar, for the liar contaminates everything he says, because everything he says is meant to further a cause that is false. The liar as liar has endorsed a world of falsehood and deception, and to focus only on the truth or falsity of his particular statements is to miss the danger of being caught up in his twisted world. This is why, as Bonhoeffer says, that "(i)t is worse for a liar to tell the truth than for a lover of truth to lie" (Ethics, p.67). ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

There are people dying from famine on the roads, and you do not issue the stores of your granaries for them. When people die, you say, 'it is not owing to me, it is owing to the year.' In what does this differ from stabbing a man and killing him, and then saying, 'it was not I, it was the weapon? ~ Mencius

Authors as diverse as Matthew Arnold and George Orwell have given thought to the serious question: what is to be done about morals and ethics now that religion has so much decayed? Arnold went almost as far as to propose that the study of literature replace the study of religion. I must say that I slightly dread the effect that this might have had on literary pursuit, but as a source of ethical reflection and as a mirror in which to see our human dilemmas reflected, the literary tradition is infinitely superior to the childish parables and morality tales, let alone the sanguinary and sectarian admonitions, of the "holy" books. ~ Christopher Hitchens

We have a special name, here, for a certain kind of failure to defer to the greater good - for putting a personal sense of doing right above any objective measure of the outcome. It's called 'moral vanity'. ~ Greg Egan

If it is true that we cannot possess knowledge of what is good in any absolute sense, it is equally true that we have an ethical duty to decide between what is better and what is worse. ~ Richard Kearney

There is a great deal of self-will in the world, but very little genuine independence of character. ~ Frederick William Faber

The true meaning of religion is thus, not simply morality, but morality touched by emotion. ~ Matthew Arnold

The problem of vindicating an omnipotent and omniscient God in the face of evil is insurmountable. Those who claim to have surmounted it, by recourse to notions of free will and other incoherencies, have merely heaped bad philosophy onto bad ethics. ~ Sam Harris

One reason for the decline in moral values is that the world has invented a new, constantly changing and undependable standard of moral conduct referred to as "situational ethics." Now, individuals define good and evil as being adjustable according to each situation; this is in direct contrast to the proclaimed God-given absolute standard: "Thou shalt not!"-as in "Thou shalt not steal". ~ David B. Haight

Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because life is sweet and they are growing. ~ Aristotle.

... It is immensely moving when a mature man - no matter whether old or young in years - is aware of a responsibility with heart and soul. He then acts by following an ethic of responsibility and somewhere reaches the point where he says: 'Here I stand; I can do no other'. That is something genuinely human and moving. And every one of us who is not spiritually dead must realize the possibility of finding himself at some time in that position. In so far as this is true, an ethic of ultimate ends and an ethic of responsibility are not absolute contrasts but rather supplements, which only in unison constitute a genuine man - a man who can have the 'calling for politics'. ~ Max Weber

Since the appearance of Christ, ethics can be concerned with only one thing: to partake in the reality of the fulfilled will of God. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The understanding of mathematics is necessary for a sound grasp of ethics. ~ Socrates

What is so often said about the solders of the 20th century is that they fought to make us free. Which is a wonderful sentiment and one witch should evoke tremendous gratitude if in fact there was a shred of truth in that statement but, it's not true. It's not even close to true in fact it's the opposite of truth.

There's this myth around that people believe that the way to honor deaths of so many of millions of people; that the way to honor is to say that we achieved some tangible, positive, good, out of their death's. That's how we are supposed to honor their deaths. We can try and rescue some positive and forward momentum of human progress, of human virtue from these hundreds of millions of death's but we don't do it by pretending that they'd died to set us free because we are less free; far less free now then we were before these slaughters began. These people did not die to set us free. They did not die fighting any enemy other than the ones that the previous deaths created.

The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper names. Solders are paid killers, and I say this with a great degree of sympathy to young men and women who are suckered into a life of evil through propaganda and the labeling of heroic to a man in costume who kills for money and the life of honor is accepting ordered killings for money, prestige, and pensions. We create the possibility of moral choice by communicating truth about ethics to people. That to me is where ~ Stefan Molyneux

A well-paid four-hour workday will increase the number of workers. ~ Samael Aun Weor

The sign of a good conscience is for a man to be in support of basically everything that Westboro Baptist isn't. ~ Luke Myer

I have gained this by philosophy ... I do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear of the law. ~ Aristotle.

It has been said that my convictions served a generation that lived out its days in the backwaters of an ignorance fed comatose by intellectual stupor. And although I find it painful to say, I would contend that this is in fact an apt description of today's generation. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

My experience showed me an ugly side of our human nature. That if we are told it's alright to step on someone, we will do so, in joy that we are not the one being stepped on. If we are told we can treat someone as lesser, we will do it, since it means we are more than they are." -Norrie, Seeing Through Sampson's Eyes ~ Pamela Schloesser Canepa

He is Your Customer, the Reason behind Your Customs. ~ Vineet Raj Kapoor

Truth-telling may be an ethic, adopted by photojournalists as a behavior, but experience shows us that it is not embedded in the medium like silver salts in film. ~ Andy Grundberg

Thus we seem to be on the verge of an expansion of welfare economics into something like a social science of ethics and politics: what was intended to be a mere porch to ethics is either the whole house or nothing at all. In so laying down its life welfare economics may be able to contribute some of its insights and analytical methods to a much broader evaluative analysis of the whole social process. ~ Kenneth E. Boulding

During the years 1945-1965 (I am referring to Europe), there was a certain way of thinking correctly, a certain style of politicaldiscourse, a certain ethics of the intellectual. One had to be on familiar terms with Marx, not let one's dreams stray too far from Freud ... These were therequirements that made the strange occupation of writing and speaking a measure of truth about oneself and one's time acceptable. ~ Michel Foucault

The difficulty was not that of following a moral principle at personal cost; the difficulty was that of knowing what to do when there is more than one principal, and when the principles clash. ~ Elton Trueblood

My father was a Tuskegee Airmen captain in the Air Force and a very strong personality. He believed in fairness and ethics and living up to the commitments you make to others. He ultimately became a judge, and he would talk to me over and over about how important it is to be fair. ~ John W. Rogers, Jr.

First of all, you must never speak of anything by its name
in that country. So, if you see a tree on a mountain, it will be better to say 'Look at the green on the high'; for that's how they talk
in that country. And whatever you do, you must find a false reason for doing it
in that country. If you rob a man, you must say it is to help and protect him: that's the ethics
of that country. And everything of value has no value at all
in that country. You must be perfectly commonplace if you want to be a genius
in that country. And everything you like you must pretend not to like; and anything that is there you must pretend is not there
in that country. And you must always say that you are sacrificing yourself in the cause of religion, and morality, and humanity, and liberty, and progress, when you want to cheat your neighbour
in that country."
Good heavens!" cried Iliel, 'are we going to England? ~ Aleister Crowley

In the relations of humans with the animals, with the flowers, with all the objects of creation, there is a whole great ethic scarcely seen as yet. ~ Victor Hugo