Ethical Shift Quotes

Envy was once considered to be one of the seven deadly sins before it became one of the most admired virtues under its new name, 'social justice’.

Ethics change with technology.

Society is constantly recalibrating, redefining what it considers to be moral and immoral.

We should find ourselves committed to killing a great many people whom we now leave living, and to leave living a great many people whom we at present kill. We should have to get rid of all ideas about capital punishment.

Many people are horrified at the idea of birth control. . . . It is simply the keynote of a new moral program.

War makes its own morals.

Although a person acting under authority performs actions that seem to violate standards of conscience, it would not be true to say that he loses his moral sense. Instead, it acquires a radically different focus. He does not respond with a moral sentiment to the actions he performs. Rather, his moral concern now shifts to a consideration of how well he is living up to the expectations that the authority has of him.

I gave up hunting a long time ago.

The moral code which was good enough for our fathers is not good enough for our children.

Everything that used to be a sin is now a disease.