John Ruskin Quotes

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

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

The moral values, ethical codes and laws that guide our choices in normal times are, if anything, even more important to help us navigate the confusing and disorienting time of a disaster.

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.

Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient.

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.

Although religion might be useful in developing a solid moral framework - and enforcing it - we can quite easily develop moral intuitions without relying on religion.

No human being or society ... ever did or ever will come to much unless their conduct was governed and guided by the love of some ethical ideal

The flame of Christian ethics is still our highest guide.

One cannot but regret the deliberate absence of every transcendental moral reference in governing the so-called developed society.

Opinions upon moral questions are more often the expression of strongly felt expediency than of careful ethical reasoning

My heart tells me what's right.

Christianity and Islam are concerned with the idea of justice, which can turn into political justice, social justice, economical justice, and so on. Buddhism is not so concerned with the idea of rights. There is more talk of responsibility than of demanding rights.

Really great moral teachers never do introduce new moralities: it is quacks and cranks who do that.

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

The declaration which says that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children is contrary to every principle of moral justice.

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

That's the thing about a folk tale: It is always addressing incredibly key issues about how you should live and what the right thing to do is, which is really what I'm the most interested in - like the questions that religion takes on. And I think that, for those of us that aren't religious, we need, or I need, art that stimulates the same kind of thinking about what it is to be a mensch, or a good man, things like that.

Nothing but the right can ever be expedient, since that can never be true expediency which would sacrifice a great good to a less.

You have to start out learning to believe the little lies. "So we can believe the big ones?" Yes. Justice, mercy, duty. That sort of thing.

The content of scientific theory itself offers no moral foundation for the personal conduct of life.

The end does not justify the means. No one's rights can be secured by the violation of the rights of others.

If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount.

Justice comes before charity.

Without the fear of God, men do not even observe justice and charity among themselves.