Ethics Quotes

“To do a great right do a little wrong.”

“For I can raise no money by vile means. By heaven, I had rather coin my heart, And drop my blood for drachmas”

“Profit is a blessing, if it's not stolen.”

“I beseech you,Wrest once the law to your authority:To do a great right, do a little wrong.”

“The trail of the serpent reaches into all the lucrative professions and practices of man. Each has its own wrongs. Each finds a tender and very intelligent conscience a disqualification for success. Each requires of the practitioner a certain shutting of the eyes, a certain dapperness and compliance, an acceptance of customs, a sequestration from the sentiments of generosity and love, a compromise of private opinion and lofty integrity.”

“All stealing is comparative. If you come to absolutes, pray who does not steal.”

“Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this.”

“Most of the great results of history are brought about by discreditable means.”

“I could better eat with one who did not respect the truth or the laws, than with a sloven and unpresentable person. Moral qualities rule the world, but at shorter distances, the senses are despotic.”

“Talent is commonly developed at the expense of character.”

“A little integrity is better than any career.”

“Preaching is the expression of the moral sentiment in application to the duties of life.”

“If we suddenly plant our foot, and say, - I will neither eat nor drink nor wear nor touch any food or fabric which I do not know to be innocent, or deal with any person whose whole manner of life is not clear and rational, we shall stand still. Whose is so? Not mine; not thine; not his. But I think we must clear ourselves each one by the interrogation, whether we have earned our bread to-day by the hearty contribution of our energies to the common benefit? and we must not cease to tend to the correction of these flagrant wrongs, by laying one stone aright every day.”

“Obey thy parents, keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array. * * * Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy pen from lenders' books.”

“Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.”

“The highest virtue is always against the law.”

“There is an intimate interdependence of intellect and morals.”

“No matter how you seem to fatten on a crime, there can never be good for the bee which is bad for the hive.”

“I do not see how a barbarous community and a civilized community can constitute a state. I think we must get rid of slavery or we must get rid of freedom.”

“It is better to suffer injustice than to do it.”

“For I can raise no money by vile means.”

“I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.”

“Good and great are seldom in the same man.”

“With integrity, nothing else counts. Without integrity, nothing else counts.”

“Nothing should be done for spite's sake.”