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
The recognition of the sanctity of the life of every man is the first and only basis of all morality.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
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
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
Your ethical muscle grows stronger every time you choose right over wrong.
—Price Pritchett
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
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
The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less than a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must—in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures—and that is the basis of all morality.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Let me give you the definition of ethics: it is good to maintain life and to further life. It is bad to damage and destroy life. And this ethic, profound and universal, has the significance of a religion. It is religion.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician
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
Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way. We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
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
It is the mark of the cultured man that he is aware of the fact that equality is an ethical and not a biological principle
—Ashley Montagu (1905–1999) British-American Anthropologist
We all faced painful ethical challenges before we even knew how to spell our names. There were tough choices. Tradeoffs. Confusing signals regarding how to live one’s life. And here we are now, today, still struggling. Still trying to sort things out. Still trying to work our way through life effectively. About the only thing that has changed is the scope of the problem. There’s more at stake now. And we’re in a position, as grownups, to do a lot more-good or bad-for ourselves, our organization, our world. But we still must wrestle with our imperfect ethics.
—Price Pritchett
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
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
Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
We endeavor to make a virtue of the faults we are unwilling to correct.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
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
Rich men without convictions are more dangerous in modern society than poor women without chastity.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
I do not believe in the immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern without any superhuman authority behind it.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
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
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
In law, a man is guilty when he violates the rights of another. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.
—Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) Prussian German Philosopher, Logician
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
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
Humanity has every reason to place the proclaimers of high moral standards and values above the discoverers of objective truth. What humanity own to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the of the inquiring constructive mind.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
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
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
Grub first, then ethics.
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) German Poet, Playwright, Theater Personality