Gloria Steinem Quotes

A means can be justified only by its end. But the end in its turn needs to be justified.

If the end does not justify the means, what does?

There is no right in acting.

All moral laws are merely statements that certain kinds of actions will have good effects.

Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.

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.

It seems that if you put people on paper and move them through time, you cannot help but talk about ethics, because the ethical realm exists nowhere if not here: in the consequences of human actions as they unfold in time, and the multiple interpretive possibility of those actions.

What is done cannot be effaced. We have to act upon a moral field prepared for us ...

If the Soviet Government orders me to act against my conscience, I do not obey …. Conscience is above the law. No law which is against the conscience can bind.

If you say morality is just what you like, you lose the metaphysical level of what in the history of philosophy is called 'categorical imperative.'

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

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

One has only as much morality as one has philosophy and poetry.

Ethics are not necessarily to do with being law-abiding. I am very interested in the moral path, doing the right thing.

Enhanced interrogation is not to be considered lightly, but the use of enhanced interrogation techniques does not require moral people to abandon their beliefs. Rather, it is precisely during these difficult times that one's beliefs about life, justice and mercy become indispensible.

If the end does not justify the means - what can?

Every judgement of conscience, be it right or wrong, be it about things evil in themselves or morally indifferent, is obligatory, in such wise that he who acts against his conscience always sins.

The ethic of conviction and the ethic of responsibility are not opposites. They are complementary to one another.

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

I have learned that a clear conscience, or a legal opinion, does not make you ethically bullet proof.

That which is morally wrong will never be politically right.

The ends do not always justify the means

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

One's concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely with one's personal interest in the issue ... Any effective means is automatically judged by the opposition as being unethical.

Kant taught us that we should follow just those rules of conduct that we would want everybody to follow. Few find this generalization of The Golden Rule a great help.