Most of us care about one another. Human beings have considerably more in common with one another than they do differences. One’s religion, political persuasion, family, financial and social status, or vocation does not hamper...

Människor är inte så små som man tror. Och inte så stora. Felet med att ha makten som bedömningsgrund och inte handlingarna är att nästan alla friskriver sig då, var och en hittar sin maktlöshet...

The modern virtues fail because they concern the outer self, the human facade, the part of ourselves the world sees most readily – while the classical virtues form an organizing framework for our inner selves…...

Every man is worth just so much as the things about which he busies himself.

Karna is a good man, but he sees good even in what is bad. His seeing it as good doesn’t make the bad good, but makes his goodness look bad.

Under opacity and in the newfound complexity of the world, people can hide risks and hurt others, with the law incapable of catching them. Iatrogenics has both delayed and invisible consequences. It is hard to...

When the stakes are this high- when calling God by the right name can make the difference between eternal happiness and eternal suffering, it is impossible to respect the beliefs of others who don’t believe...

Ethically, she couldn’t cause the suffering of any living thing. Logically, bacon cheeseburgers were delicious.

for that men have been good does not suffice for them to continue being good, unless one cares about it to the end.

A real man—real in all the ways that we recognize as real—finds himself suddenly abstracted from the world and deposited in a physical situation which could not possibly exist: sounds have aroma, smells have color...

Socialism is politicized envy.

I have always believed that atrademark is the life of an enterpriseand that it must be protected boldly. Atrademark and a company name arenot just clever gimmicks-they carryresponsibility and guarantee thequality of the product. If...

To be an ethical leader is indeed to be different. This kind of leader acknowledges the complexity of running a responsible business, yet tries to do it anyway.

Now to exert oneself and work for the sake of amusement seems silly and utterly childish. But to amuse oneself in order that one may exert oneself, as Anacharsis puts it, seems right; for amusement...

Principles are only tools in the hands of God; they will soon be thrown away when they are no longer useful.

Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour … If at my convenience...

Is it possible that future generations will regard our present agribuisness and eating practices in much the same way we now view Nero’s entertainments or Mengele’s experiments? My own initial reaction is that such a...

Bonhoeffer examined and dismissed a number of approaches to dealing with evil. “Reasonable people,” he said, think that “with a little reason, they can pull back together a structure that has come apart at the...

To be ethical is to endeavor to find one’s proper place in the larger scheme of things rather than to seek to assert human superiority over the natural world.

What good does it do to tell somebody to live morally so they can die 50 years later and apparently go to Hell?

Face the complexity involved in making ethical choices.

Ethics is a skill

Each of us lives with a sword over his head.There are those who can ignore its shadow and those who cannot. Those who cannot are not necessarily better than those who can. But they are...

He sells his loyalties to the highest bidder. Shouldn’t even a mercenary have morals? That’s the textbook definition of a whore!

May we think of freedom not as the right to do as we please but as the opportunity to do what is right.

What one generation finds ridiculous, the next accepts; and the third shudders when it looks back on what the first did.

Improving the world can be a nasty and ugly and difficult and dangerous business…because when you improve the world, you threaten the entrenched interests of evil people.

Jesus was not content to derive his ethics from the scriptures of his upbringing. He explicitly departed from them. […] Since a principal thesis of this chapter is that we do not, and should not,...

In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis argues that human beings cannot be truly good or moral without faith in God and without submis- sion to the will of Christ. Unfortunately, Lewis does not provide any...

It is my conviction that, with the spread of true scientific culture, whatever may be the medium, historical, philological, philosophical, or physical, through which that culture is conveyed, and with its necessary concomitant, a constant...

Where there is not community, trust, respect, ethical behavior are difficult for the young to learn and for the old to maintain.

All laws which can be violated without doing any one any injury are laughed at. Nay, so far are they from doing anything to control the desires and passions of men that, on the contrary,...

A world without esoteric knowledge is a poorer place and we as a humanity pay the price for the loss of its principles.

You believe stealing is wrong, but if your family was starving and could not afford bread, wouldn’t you say it’s okay to steal a loaf to feed them?

An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about the ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or of Practical Reason is idiocy. If a man’s mind is open on...

We’d do well to remember that at the end of the day, the law doesn’t defend us; we defend the law. And when it becomes contrary to our morals, we have both the right and...

From the beginning, from the age of Adam to the time of kingship: from the powerful, pardon: from the poor, sins.

All ethics and morals are culturally relative. And Esme’s reaction taught me that while cultural relativism is an easy concept to process intellectually, it is not, for many, an easy one to remember.

I stand in philosophy exactly where I stand in daily life; I should not be honest otherwise.

Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall...

Not everyone can be bribed with meat, Oberon.” “They Can’t? Oh! you mean they’re vegetarian.””No, they eat meat. It just doesn’t sway their decision making process.” “Well that… that’s just wrong, Atticus!Are they Monsters? It’s...

When we lift our forks, we hang our hats somewhere. We set ourselves in one relationship or another to farmed animals, farm-workers, national economies, and global markets. Not making a decision–eating ‘like everyone else’–is to...

Wherever morality is based on theology, wherever right is made dependent on divine authority, the most immoral, unjust, infamous things can be justified and established.

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

You think you’re superior to the others, don’t you? We’ll you’re not. In fact you’re worse for mistaking basic human decency for moral superiority.

Why give a robot an order to obey orders—why aren’t the original orders enough? Why command a robot not to do harm—wouldn’t it be easier never to command it to do harm in the first...

You know, kid, ethics isn’t about choosing between right and wrong; it’s about choosing between grey and grey. It’s about choosing between two equally desirable but mutually exclusive courses of action. Freedom or security? Courage...

He that doth not as other men do, but endeavoureth that which ought to be done, shall thereby rather incur peril than preservation; for whoso laboureth to be sincerely perfect and good shall necessarily perish,...

playing God.” Human authorities arrogate to themselves rights which belong only to God. God is under no obligation whatsoever to extend my life for another second. If He wanted to strike me dead right now,...

With discipline, you are able to maintain a higher tolerance for frustration, obstacles and negative emotions. Self-discipline allows you to obtain better health, better finances and a good work ethic, and it allows you to...