Plato Quotes

In any decision for action, when you have to make up your mind what to do, there is always a 'should' involved, and this cannot be worked out from, 'If I do this, what will happen?' alone.

That's always been my philosophy. - I've never thought of the consequences of a necessary action.

The end never justifies the means because there is no end; there are only means.

The only objects of practical reason are therefore those of good and evil. For by the former is meant an object necessarily desired according to a principle of reason; by the latter one necessarily shunned, also according to a principle of reason.

That action is best which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers.

To be a utilitarian means that you judge actions as right or wrong in accordance with whether they have good consequences. So you try to do what will have the best consequences for all of those affected.

Praxeology - economics - provides no ultimate ethical judgments: it simply furnishes the indispensable data necessary to make such judgments.

A moral choice in its basic terms appears to be a choice that favors survival: a choice made in favor of life.

[R]eason is... given to us as a practical faculty, that is, as one that influences the will.

I conceive that pleasures are to be avoided if greater pains be the consequence, and pains to be coveted that will terminate in greater pleasures.

It is sometimes rational to do what is wrong, and sometimes irrational to do what is right

It would be most right, and most wise, and, therefore must involve least suffering.

One way to determine if a view is inadequate is to check its consequences in particular cases, sometimes extreme ones, but if someone always decided what the result should be in any case by applying the given view itself, this would preclude discovering it did not correctly fit the case. Readers who hold they would plug in to the machine should notice whether their first impulse was not to do so, followed later by the thought that since only experiences could matter, the machine would be all right after all.

If an action must be taken that will benefit the majority at the cost of the minority, is it morally indefensible? If an action taken for the benefit of a majority occurs at the expense of a minority, is it moral action?

Good taste is the excuse I've always given for leading such a bad life

The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action.

The result justifies the deed.

Conscience is the reason employed about questions of right and wrong.

For the lesser evil is reckoned a good in comparison with the greater evil, since the lesser evil is rather to be chosen than the greater. .

With intellectuals, moral thought is often less a tonic that quickens ethical action than a narcotic that deadens it.

No man ever properly calculates from time to time what it is his duty to avoid.

Too great a preoccupation with motives (especially one's own motive) is liable to lead to too little concern for consequences.

The issues of the choice between right and wrong has to be an ongoing concern for everybody, at every age. There is no magical point in a human life when anyone is or becomes immune to the second-by-second choice to do right instead of wrong.

I think in general the ends do not justify the means.

Moral truth, resting entirely upon the ascertained consequences of actions, supposes a process of observation and reasoning.