Ezra Taft Benson Quotes

You can't slice up morals.

The rules of morality are not the conclusion of our reason.

Our moral philosophy determines our values - what we care about and what we don't care about - and our values determine our decisions, actions, and beliefs. Therefore, moral philosophy applies to everything in our lives.

One needs to know what is right and what is wrong.

I have a pretty keen ethical compass.

There can be no compromise on moral principles.

Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him he will be complaining 'It's not fair' before you can say Jack Robinson.

Abstractions about right and wrong, whether they are as old as Thou Shalt Not Kill or as modern as Do Your Own Thing, often serve only to confuse and weaken genuine moral decision.

Call me old-fashioned, but I believe that morality is not just a matter of opinion.

Right and wrong are not simply matters of evolutionary impacts and what is natural.

Without ethics, man has no future. This is to say, mankind without them cannot be itself. Ethics determine choices and actions and suggest difficult priorities.

I'll never go against my morals.

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

The novel is a penetrating study of morals and ethics.

I try not to do anything that's immoral.

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

The fundamental basis of ethics must be chosen in some non-scientific way.

No morality can be founded on authority, even if the authority were divine.

What are the values that give meaning? What is the line that you will never cross, because on this side you're good, and on this side you're evil.

In the past, the respect people had for religion meant that ethical practice was maintained through a majority following one religion or another. But this is no longer the case. We must therefore find some other way of establishing basic ethical principles.

Moral standards cannot be changed by battle and cannot be changed by ballot.

You know, there's a right and wrong way to do everything.

It's because even a good man can't always be right, that we need ... rules.

Have you no morals, man?' 'Can't afford them,Governor.

Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour ... If at my convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?