Ethical Standard Quotes

Whatever may be open to disagreement, there is one act of evil that may not, the act that no man may commit against others and no man may sanction or forgive. So long as men desire to live together, no man may initiate—do you hear me? no man may start—the use of physical force against others.

People hold elected officials to a higher ethical standard than most others.

Even those who have renounced Christianity and attack it, in their inmost being still follow the Christian ideal, for hitherto neither their subtlety nor the ardour of their hearts has been able to create a higher ideal of man and of virtue than the ideal given by Christ of old.

Money is the barometer of a society's virtue.

A fiduciary standard means, basically, put the interests of the client first. No excuses. Period.

Remember: sin, even if legalized by man, is still sin in the eyes of God.

The lethal possibilities of atomic warfare in the future are frightening. My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children. We were the first to have this weapon in our possession, and the first to use it. There is a practical certainty that potential enemies will have it in the future and that atomic bombs will sometime be used against us.

Fame is not the glory! Virtue is the goal, and fame only a messenger, to bring more to the fold.

Gods should not resemble men in their anger!

In the past we have tried to make a distinction between animals which we acknowledge have some value and other which, having none, can be liquidated when we wish. This standard must be abandoned. Everything that lives has value simply as a living thing, as one of the manifestations of the mystery that is life.

There is no better rule to try a doctrine by than the question, Is it merciful, or is it unmerciful? If its character is that of mercy, it has the image of Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.

Only a man's character is the real criterion of worth

No man of honor ever quite lives up to his code, any more than a moral man manages to avoid sin.

Dostoevski informs everybody; or he ought to.

Place principle above all else.

My judgment about what is right for this country will always guide me.

Act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.

Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director and regulator, the standard of them all.

Can any man have a higher notion of the rule of right and the eternal fitness of things?

The Ten Commandments were not a suggestion.

The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.

For right is right, since God is God.

You are no better than you should be.

I love the idea of rectitude.

One thing about trust is that everyone's for it.