Tamora Pierce Quotes

Man's sense of Morality tends to decrease as his Power increases

It would be a great thing if people could be brought to realize that they can never add to the sum of their happiness by doing wrong.

I have a pretty keen ethical compass.

You have to develop a conscience and if on top of that you have talent so much the better. But if you have talent without conscience, you are just one of many thousand journalists.

There is no honest man! not one, that can resist the attraction of gold!

There can be no question of holding forth on ethics. I have seen people behave badly with great morality and I note every day that integrity has no need of rules

...guilt leads to righteous action, but rarely is it the right action.

The difference between weakness and wickedness is much less than people suppose; and the consequences are nearly always the same.

Those who really deserve praise are the people who, while human enough to enjoy power, nevertheless pay more attention to justice than they are compelled to do by their situation.

Experience shows us Wealth unchaperoned by Virtue is never an innocuous neighbor.

There is no praise in being upright, where no one can, or tries to corrupt you.

Virtuous people are simply those who have not been tempted sufficiently, because they live in a vegetative state, or because their purposes are so concentrated in one direction that they have not had the leisure to glance around them.

If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.

Self-respecting men and women think about the consequences of their actions-and are willing to take responsibility for them.

Let him leave the imperial court, who wishes to be virtuous. Virtue and absolute power cannot coexist.

The right to do something doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.

Money corrupts the process of reasoning.

Of a truth, Knowledge is power, but it is a power reined by scruple, having a conscience of what must be and what may be. . . .

With morality we correct the mistakes of our instincts, and with love we correct the mistakes of our morals.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong, because you can remain the friend of the sufferer; who would want to be the friend of and have to live together with a murderer? Not even another murderer.

Prefer punishment to disgraceful gain; for the one is painful but once, but the other for one's whole life.

I think you'll make more money in the end with good ethics than bad. Even though there are some people who do very well, like Marc Rich-who plainly has never had any decent ethics, or seldom anyway. But in the end, Warren Buffett has done better than Marc Rich-in money-not just in reputation.

Be not familiar with the idea of wrong, for sin in fancy mothers many an ugly fact.

One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a man.

Sinners often speak the truth. And saints have led people astray. Examine what is said, not the one who says it.