Sholem Asch Quotes

Ethics is a code of values which guide our choices and actions and determine the purpose and course of our lives.

Tis certain that Morality is an indispensable Requisite of true Religion, and there can be none without it. But it would become the Pride and Ignorance of Pagans only, to magnify it, as the Whole of what is necessary.

It’s pretty simple, the ethical life. It’s just demanding.

Ethical existence [is] the highest manifestation of spirituality.

The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.

A man should live his life a certain way not because of some divine authority, but because of a personal moral obligation to himself and others.

Peace is normally a great good, and normally it coincides with righteousness, but it is righteousness and not peace which should bind the conscience of a nation as it should bind the conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor an individual can surrender conscience to another's keeping.

The whole history of man is continuous proof of the maxim that to divest one's methods of ethical concepts means to sink into the depths of utter demoralization.

There can be no compromise on moral principles.

By helping to raise man above the level of bestial vegetation, faith contributes in reality to the securing and safeguarding of his existence. Take away from present-day mankind its education-based, religious-dogmatic principles- or, practically speaking, ethical-moral principles- by abolishing this religious education, but without replacing it by an equivalent, and the result will be a grave shock to the foundations of their existence.

I have my own rules and adhere to them. The rule is simple but inflexible. A James Stewart picture must have two vital ingredients. It will be clean and it will involve the triumph of the underdog over the bully.

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him.

The purpose of life is to bring forth goodness. Now, in this life.

Whatever you may suffer, speak the truth. Be worthy of the entire confidence of your associates. Consider what is right as to what must be done. It is not necessary that you should keep your property, or even your life, but it is necessary that you should hold fast your integrity.

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

Life is moral responsibility.

If it comes down to your ethics vs. a job, choose ethics. You can always find another job.

Above all things, one should maintain his self-respect, and there is but one way to do that, and that is to live in accordance with your highest ideal.

The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.

The law functions as formal embodiment of a moral code, not as free-standing substitute for it.

Moral result can only be produced by moral restraints.

Conscience is the most sacred of all property; other property depending in part on positive law, the exercise of that, being a natural and unalienable right.

Hence the sterile, uninspiring futility of a great many theoretical discussions of ethics, and the resentment which many people feel towards such discussions: moral principles remain in their minds as floating abstractions, offering them a goal they cannot grasp and demanding that they reshape their souls in its image, thus leaving them with a burden of undefinable moral guilt.

To live a life of honesty and integrity is a responsibility of every decent person.

Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.