We’re given a code to live our lives by. We don’t always follow it, but it’s still there.
—Gary Oldman (b.1958) British Actor, Filmmaker
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
It appears to me that in Ethics, as in all other philosophical studies, the difficulties and disagreements, of which history is full, are mainly due to a very simple cause: namely to the attempt to answer questions, without first discovering precisel.
—George Moore (1852–1933) Irish Writer
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
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 (b.1941) American Management Consultant
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 (b.1941) American Management Consultant
Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
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
Live one day at a time emphasizing ethics rather than rules.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
An ethical person ought to do more than he’s required to do and less than he’s allowed to do.
—Indian Proverb
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
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
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
Ethical living is the indispensable condition of all that is most worthwhile in the world.
—Ernest Caldecott (1889–1974) British-American Minister
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 (1930–2023) American Jurist, First Female Supreme Court Justice
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 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 (b.1941) American Management Consultant
From the poetry of Lord Byron they drew a system of ethics compounded of misanthropy and voluptuousness—a system in which the two great commandments were to hate your neighbor and to love your neighbor’s wife.
—Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–59) English Historian, Essayist, Philanthropist
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
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
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
I consider ethics, as well as religion, as supplements to law in the government of man.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Ethics and equity and the principles of justice do not change with the calendar.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Critic
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
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
We never reach our ideals, whether of mental or moral improvement, but the thought of them shows us our deficiencies, and spurs us on to higher and better things.
—Tryon Edwards (1809–94) American Theologian, Author
The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, “I was wrong.”
—Sydney J. Harris (1917–86) American Essayist, Drama Critic
True morality consists no in following the beaten track, but in finding out the true path for ourselves and fearlessly following it.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
You can’t put someone else in charge of your morals. Ethics is a personal discipline.
—Price Pritchett (b.1941) American Management Consultant
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
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