Relative Ethics Quotes

There is no perfect justice, just as there is no absolute in ethics. But there is perfect injustice, and we know it when we see it.

It may be very generous in one person to offer what it would be ungenerous in another to accept.

Tell me,' asked Stas, 'what is a wicked deed?' 'If anyone takes away Kali's cow,' he answered after a brief reflection, 'that then is a wicked deed.' 'Excellent!' exclaimed Stas, 'and what is a good one?' This time the answer came without any reflection: 'If Kali takes away the cow of somebody else, that is a good deed.' Stas was too young to perceive that similar views of evil and good deeds were enunciated in Europe not only by politicians but by whole nations.

We proclaim human intelligence to be morally valuable per se because we are human. If we were birds, we would proclaim the ability to fly as morally valuable per se. If we were fish, we would proclaim the ability to live underwater as morally valuable per se. But apart from our obviously self-interested proclamations, there is nothing morally valuable per se about human intelligence.

There is hardly any deviancy, no matter how reprehensible in one context, which is not extolled as a virtue in another. There are no natural crimes, only legal ones.

Sometimes, whether a desire is excessive or negative depends on the circumstances or society in which you live in.

Honor to a Spaniard, no matter how dishonest, is as real a thing as water, wine, or olive oil. There is honor among pickpockets and honor among whores. It is simply that the standards differ.

No act is of itself either good or bad. Only its place in the order of things makes it good or bad.

Whatever I thought right, to others seemed wrong; what I held to be bad, others approved of.

I am very conscious that you can't condemn people of an earlier era by the standards of ours.

What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, and immorality is what they dislike.

When considering a man's motives, remember you must not measure his wheat with your bushel. He may not be using the same standard at all.

There are no absolute rules of conduct, either in peace or war. Everything depends on circumstances.