Ethical Conflict Quotes

When one acts on pity against justice, it is the good whom one punishes for the sake of the evil; when one saves the guilty from suffering, it is the innocent whom one forces to suffer. There is no escape from justice, nothing can be unearned and unpaid for in the universe, neither in matter nor in spirit—and if the guilty do not pay, then the innocent have to pay it.

It is impossible to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and be a Republican. It's philosophically absolutely opposed - if they could only think about what they were saying for a minute. That's when you get caught up in the webs of what people call themselves and how they behave.

In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil

Capitalism and altruism are incompatible; they are philosophical opposites; they cannot co-exist in the same man or in the same society.

The choice before human beings, is not, as a rule , between good and evil but between two evils. You can let the Nazis rule the world : that is evil; or you can overthrow them by war , which is also evil. There is no other choice before you, and whichever you choose you will not come out with clean hands.

Sanctions are a very un-Christian weapon.

Your problem is that you have been too honest for too long. Once you start doing it, lying is simpler than breathing.

it is better to mistakenly kill an innocent person then to mistakenly spare an enemy.

We only have one story. All novels, all poetry are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil.

Religions that teach brotherly love have been used as an excuse for persecution, and our profoundest scientific insight is made into a means of mass destruction.

In the end, madness is worse than injustice, and justice far sweeter than freedom.

In both cases, weakness and scruples had defeated strength and ruthlessness.

Identify the moral dilemma driving the novel. the successful novel will haunt a reader because it deals with some ethical or moral dilemma that makes the reader wonder what he or she would do in the protagonist's place.

The apprehension of the good Gives but the greater feeling to the worse.

In this world, either you're virtuous or you enjoy yourself. Not both, lady, not both.

If I say that I am more interested in preventing the slaughter of large whales than I am in improving housing conditions for people, I am likely to shock some of my friends.

A guilty conscience never feels secure.

Necessity makes an honest man a knave.

I work for a Government I despise for ends I think criminal.

Don't confuse the evil of avoiding pregnancy by itself, with abortion. Abortion is not a theological problem, it is a human problem, it is a medical problem. You kill one person to save another, in the best case scenario.

Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well.

In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.

… war by its nature entails terrible injustice to many individuals and that acceptance of that injustice as the lesser evil is implicit in any decision to send the military into combat.

I had believed it [organizing the Watergate break-in] was wrong but believed that the greater good was in serving the President.

When honor and the Law no longer stand on the same side of the line, how do we choose[?]