A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectively on sympathy, education, and social relationships; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
The ethics of excellence are grounded in action – what you actually do, rather than what you say you believe. Talk, as the saying goes, is cheap.
—Price Pritchett
There is, therefore, only one categorical imperative. It is: Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.
—Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) Prussian German Philosopher, Logician
People need religion. It’s a vehicle for a moral tradition. A crucial role. Nothing can take its place.
—Irving Kristol (1920–2009) American Political Writer, Publisher
Freedom, morality, and the human dignity of the individual consists precisely in this; that he does good not because he is forced to do so, but because he freely conceives it, wants it, and loves it.
—Mikhail Bakunin (1814–76) Russian Anarchist Philosopher
The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Piety and morality are but the same spirit differently manifested. Piety is religion with its fact toward God; morality is religion with its fact toward the world.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
Notice that “I” is at the center of the word “ethical.” There is no “they.” Achieving the ethics of excellence is our individual assignment.
—Price Pritchett
Your ethical muscle grows stronger every time you choose right over wrong.
—Price Pritchett
Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician
It was once said that the moral test of Government is how that Government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped
—Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician
Every aspect of Western culture needs a new code of ethics—a rational ethics—as a precondition of rebirth.
—Ayn Rand (1905–82) Russian-born American Novelist, Philosopher
A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician
Because you’re able to do it and because you have the right to do it doesn’t mean it’s right to do it.
—Laura Schlessinger (b.1947) American Radio Talk-Show Host, Author
The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
An ethical person ought to do more than he’s required to do and less than he’s allowed to do
—Indian Proverb
But when we get enough people who don’t care, and who don’t accept personal responsibility for high ethical standards, our organization gets the “M” disease. Mediocrity. Anybody in the place can be a carrier. By the same token, every individual can carry the cure: the ethics of excellence.
—Price Pritchett
We need timeless principles to steer by in running our organizations and building our personal careers. We need high standards . . . the ethics of excellence.
—Price Pritchett
The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be. The more weapons you have, the less secure people will be.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
By ethical argument and moral principle the greatest crimes are eventually shown to have been necessary, and, in fact, a signal benefit to mankind.
—Zhuang Zhou (c.369–c.286 BCE) Chinese Taoist Philosopher
You can’t put someone else in charge of your morals. Ethics is a personal discipline.
—Price Pritchett
The darkest hour in the history of any young man is when he sits down to study how to get money without honestly earning it.
—Horace Greeley (1811–72) American Elected Rep, Politician, Reformer, Editor
To care for anyone else enough to make their problems one’s own, is ever the beginning of one’s real ethical development.
—Felix Adler (1851–1933) German-Born American Philosopher
Sorrow breaks season, and reposing hours; makes the night morning, and the noontide night.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The character ethic, which I believe to be the foundation of success, teaches that there are basic principles of effective living, and that people can only experience true success and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
Actually, there is only one “first question” of government, and it is “How should we live?” or “What kind of people do we want our citizens to be?”
—George Will (b.1941) American Columnist, Journalist, Writer
The ethics of excellence require a sense of perspective. Look at the big picture. If you live for the moment, do you mortgage the future? What happens if you put your reputation at risk . . . and lose the bet?
—Price Pritchett
Ethics and equity and the principles of justice do not change with the calendar.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
We pay a price when we deprive children of the exposure to the values, principles, and education they need to make them good citizens.
—Sandra Day O’Connor (b.1930) American Jurist
The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
—Omar Bradley (1893–1981) American Military Leader
What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Even the most rational approach to ethics is defenseless if there isn’t the will to do what is right
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian Dissident Novelist
Without ethics, everything happens as if we were all five billion passengers on a big machinery and nobody is driving the machinery. And it’s going faster and faster, but we don’t know where.
—Jacques Cousteau (1910–97) French Oceanographer, Documentary Director
Idleness is the beginning of all vices.
—Common Proverb
The act of acting morally is behaving as if everything we do matters.
—Gloria Steinem (b.1934) American Feminist, Journalist, Social Activist, Political Activist
Mathematics is distinguished from all other sciences except only ethics, in standing in no need of ethics. Every other science, even logic, especially in its early stages, is in danger of evaporating into airy nothingness, degenerating, as the Germans say, into an arachnoid film, spun from the stuff that dreams are made of. There is no such danger for pure mathematics; for that is precisely what mathematics ought to be.
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) American Philosopher, Logician, Mathematician
Live one day at a time emphasizing ethics rather than rules.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
Ethical dilemmas have a way of sneaking up on a person. If something smells funny, stay away from it. Or help get rid of it.
—Price Pritchett
The only way we can develop muscle is through regular exercise. As soon as we stop stretching and working toward higher ethics, our standards start to sag. The muscle gets soft, and instead of excellence we have to settle for mediocrity. Maybe something even worse.
—Price Pritchett
Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life. That is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring, and limiting life are evil.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician
There is a universal moral law, as distinct from a moral code, which consists of certain statements of fact about the nature of man, and by behaving in conformity with which, man may enjoy his true freedom.
—Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) British Crime Writer
Live according to the ethics of excellence, and you can always stand proud. Pride – not vanity, but dignity and self-respect – should carry a lot of weight in helping you make decisions. Let pride help you decide.
—Price Pritchett
Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
He who approves evil is guilty of it.
—Indian Proverb
Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician
When it comes to practicing good ethics, saying no to a vice is not good enough. A quality life is never achieved by focusing on the elimination of what is wrong. True success requires you to focus your mental, emotional, and spiritual energies on pursuing that which is right and good. Trying to become virtuous merely by excluding vice is as unrealistic as trying to cultivate roses simply by eliminating weeds.
—Gary Ryan Blair
Ethical religion can be real only to those who are engaged in ceaseless efforts at moral improvement. By moving upward we acquire faith in an upward movement, without limit.
—Felix Adler (1851–1933) German-Born American Philosopher
I say statecraft is soulcraft. Just as all education is moral education because learning conditions conduct, most legislation is moral legislations because it conditions the action and the thought of the nation in broad and important spheres in life.
—George Will (b.1941) American Columnist, Journalist, Writer