Philosophy & Thought: Ethics & Morality Quotes

Explore a curated selection of quotations that probe duty, virtue, justice, and the choices that shape a good life. These voices consider intention and consequence, personal conscience and social responsibility, and the tensions between rules and compassion. Drawn from philosophers and thoughtful observers across eras, the collection invites reflection on integrity, character, and ethical reasoning in private and public life. Use these lines to spark dialogue, challenge assumptions, and clarify values.

Similar topics:Deep Free Will & Fate Reason & Logic Truth Wisdom

"All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing"

Edmund Burke, Statesman

Edmund Burke

"To the wicked, everything serves as pretext"

Voltaire, Writer

Voltaire

"It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously"

Peter Ustinov, Actor

Peter Ustinov

"I don't persuade to suicide"

Jack Kevorkian, Activist

Jack Kevorkian

"Better murder an infant in its cradle than nurse an unacted desire"

William Blake, Poet

William Blake

"Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table"

W. H. Auden, Poet

W. H. Auden

"The devil is compromise"

Henrik Ibsen, Poet

Henrik Ibsen

"Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics"

Jane Addams, Activist

Jane Addams

"Grub first, then ethics"

Bertolt Brecht, Poet

Bertolt Brecht

"Evil is whatever distracts"

Franz Kafka, Novelist

Franz Kafka

"All sins are attempts to fill voids"

Simone Weil, Philosopher

Simone Weil

"Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil"

Plato, Philosopher

Plato

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals"

Immanuel Kant, Philosopher

Immanuel Kant

"A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world"

Albert Camus, Philosopher

Albert Camus

"Those who play with the devil's toys will be brought by degrees to wield his sword"

R. Buckminster Fuller, Inventor

R. Buckminster Fuller

"The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts"

C. S. Lewis, Author

C. S. Lewis

"A healthy social life is found only when in the mirror of each soul the whole community finds its reflection, and when in the whole community the virtue of each one is living"

Rudolf Steiner, Philosopher

Rudolf Steiner

"Politics have no relation to morals"

Niccolo Machiavelli, Writer

Niccolo Machiavelli

"The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion"

Arthur C. Clarke, Writer

Arthur C. Clarke

"The crime, and not the scaffold, makes the shame"

Pierre Corneille, Dramatist

Pierre Corneille

"The Puritan hated bear baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators"

Thomas B. Macaulay, Historian

Thomas B. Macaulay

"Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious"

Oscar Wilde, Dramatist

Oscar Wilde

"Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall"

William Shakespeare, Dramatist

William Shakespeare

"I shall assume that your silence gives consent"

Plato, Philosopher

Plato

"Respect for the truth comes close to being the basis for all morality"

Frank Herbert, Writer

Frank Herbert

"Nay, men are so far from musing of their sins, that they disdain this practise, and scoff at it: what say they, if all were of your mind; what should become of us? Shall we be always poring on our corruptions?"

Thomas Hooker, Leader

Thomas Hooker

"The fate of animals is of greater importance to me than the fear of appearing ridiculous; it is indissolubly connected with the fate of men"

Emile Zola, Novelist

Emile Zola

"Talking isn't doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds"

William Shakespeare, Dramatist

William Shakespeare

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe"

Thomas Jefferson, President

Thomas Jefferson

"A civilization is built on what is required of men, not on that which is provided for them"

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Novelist

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but rather, "Can they suffer?""

Jeremy Bentham, Philosopher

Jeremy Bentham

"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues"

Abraham Lincoln, President

Abraham Lincoln

"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise"

Aldo Leopold, Environmentalist

Aldo Leopold

"The strategic adversary is fascism... the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us"

Michel Foucault, Historian

"Laws control the lesser man... Right conduct controls the greater one"

Mark Twain, Author

Mark Twain

"Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it's set a rolling it must increase"

Charles Caleb Colton, Writer

Charles Caleb Colton

"There are times in politics when you must be on the right side and lose"

John Kenneth Galbraith, Economist

John Kenneth Galbraith

"The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul"

John Calvin, Theologian

John Calvin

"The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people"

Charles E. Trevelyan

"Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts"

Aristotle, Philosopher

Aristotle

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