Ivan Boesky Quotes

At the end of the day, if there are truly ethical considerations, those have to override scientific considerations.

Ethical and legal are not synonyms. ;

Everybody is grappling with their own moral compass, and that needle, like any needle, can't just stick. It's always floating a little bit, and depending on where you're standing, it's hard to read.

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. This isn’t a good idea. This isn’t right.” “There’s all kinds of right,” he murmured. “On the spectrum, we’re still in the safe zone.” ... “Definitely right. Usually right,” Patch continued. “Mostly right. Maybe right.

… you were so worried about legal and illegal that you never stopped to think about whether it was right or wrong.

It may not have the virtuous ring of the golden rule, but the maxim 'never say never' is one of the most important in ethics.

Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons.

An ethical action, like an unethical action, is usually analyzed by politicians purely in pragmatic terms.

A book must have moral purpose to be any good. Why, I don't know.

Some things must be good in themselves, else there could be no measure whereby to lay out good and evil.

Ethics is a fluid term ...It's the standards by which a civilized society lives.

When the goals of science collide with moral and ethical judgment, there are certain times when science has to take a time-out.

My only fear is doing something contrary to human nature - the wrong thing, the wrong way, or at the wrong time.

Should I be the one to play God? We're both about the same age, but we grew up in different neighborhoods.

That which is selfish is immoral, and that which is unselfish is moral.

It’s a good thing when you don’t dare do something if you don’t think it’s right. But it’s not good when you think something’s not right because you don’t dare do it.

Do you suppose that sacrifice is the hallmark of moral action?--Just stop to consider whether sacrifice is not involved in every action that is done with deliberation, the worst as well as the best.

I have never made it a consideration whether the subject was popular or unpopular, but whether it was right or wrong; for that which is right will become popular, and that which is wrong, though by mistake it may obtain the cry or fashion of the day, will soon lose the power of delusion, and sink into disesteem.

Science, by itself, cannot supply us with an ethic. It can show us how to achieve a given end, and it may show us that some ends cannot be achieved. But among ends that can be achieved our choice must be decided by other than purely scientific considerations. If a man were to say, "I hate the human race, and I think it would be a good thing if it were exterminated," we could say, "Well, my dear sir, let us begin the process with you." But this is hardly argument, and no amount of science could prove such a man mistaken.

People have no morals, I swear to God. The things that people do for ratings! It's unforgivable.

Morality is the thing upon which your friends smile, and immorality is the thing upon which they frown

One’s concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely with one’s personal interest in the issue.

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

One of the most depressing features of the ethical side of the matter is that instead of such methods arousing contempt they are more or less openly admired. And this is logical. Canonise 'business success,' and men who made a success like that of the Standard Oil Trust become national heroes!

D'you know how embarrassing it is to mention good and evil in a scientific laboratory? Have you any idea? One of the reasons I became a scientist was not to have to think about that kind of thing.