John Rawls Quotes

So I think ethics is the broader thing that's less focused on prohibitions and is more perhaps looking at principles and questions and ideas about how to live your life.

My personal philosophy of life is one of ethics.

Our foreign policy has from the beginning endeavored to take into account the realities and to work accordingly, But it has never dropped from its high moral ideals; it wanted to be and, I think it really and truly was, idealistic and founded entirely upon moral principles

We shall not hold the dangerous axiom that 'truth is the best policy,' because policy is but a means to an end; and truth is an end, not a means.

My integrity is something I hold dear.

I think my moral ground is very much intact.

Principles are what allow you to live a life consistent with those values. Principles connect your values to your actions.

The principles of ethics come from our own nature as social, reasoning beings.

Our search for such [moral] principles can start with . . . the unconditional imperative to acknowledge every person as a person. If we ask for the contents given by this absolute, we find, first, something negative-the command not to treat a person as a thing. This seems little, but it is much. It is the core of the principle of justice.

Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles; he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author.

Every word which is used to express a moral or intellectual fact, if traced to its root, is found to be borrowed from some material appearance.

Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains, rather than do an immoral act.

But, Polly, a principle that can't bear being laughed at, frowned on, and cold-shouldered, isn't worthy of the name.

Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.

The reason why principles are so important is because principles make life predictable.

Don't pretend that you can just be oblivious to politics. You can't. What you never do is break your personal code. Have a code and keep it. You should never compromise what your priorities are.

The cause of all human evils is the not being able to apply general principles to special cases.

Principles are like seeds; they are little things which do much good, if the mind that receives them has the right attitudes.

As a rule of thumb I say, if Socrates, Jesus and Tolstoy wouldn't do it, don't.

You're only as good as your values.

If our principles are right, why should we be cowards?

Our behavior is governed by principles. Living in harmony with them brings positive consequences; violating them brings negative consequences.

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

When your principles seem to be demanding suicide, clearly it's time to check your premises

Whenever there is a conflict between universal principles and self-interest, self-interest is likely to prevail.