Ethics is the new competitive environment — Peter Robinson
To be ethical is to endeavor to find one's proper place in the larger scheme of things rather than to seek to assert human superiority over the natural world. — Gary Steiner
Ethics, decency and morality are the real soldiers — Kiran Bedi
Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching- even when doing the wrong thing is legal. — Aldo Leopold
Medical ethics is a fascinating discipline, as it deals with issues replete with complex philosophical, moral, and ethical considerations that are rarely black or white. — Gad Saad
A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help. — Albert Schweitzer
Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself. — Bertrand Russell
Ethics is not just something that people worry about and discuss; it's actually something that needs to be integrated into the process of scientific discovery and technological development. — Jennifer Doudna
You will never win if you don't deal with your work ethically. All that you need to do is to stick to your principles; morals are relative. — Ranveer Singh
If being ethical were profitable everybody would do it. — Naval Ravikant
More often there's a compromise between ethics and expediency. — Peter Singer
To be an ethical leader is indeed to be different. This kind of leader acknowledges the complexity of running a responsible business, yet tries to do it anyway. — Andrew Leigh
Treating other people as you would like to be treated. It is an ancient, universal ethical imperative. And it requires no supernatural beliefs. — Phil Zuckerman
Every aspect of Western culture needs a new code of ethics - a rational ethics - as a precondition of rebirth. — Ayn Rand
No responsibility of government is more fundamental than the responsibility of maintaining the highest standard of ethical behavior for those who conduct the public business. — John F. Kennedy
Short Ethical Quotes
Do the right thing because it is right. — Immanuel Kant
You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
How sweet to be a Cloud. Floating in the Blue! — A. A. Milne
Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement. — Alfred Adler
Be silly. Be honest. Be kind. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ethical teaching is weakened if it is tied up with dogmas that will not bear examination. — Margaret E. Knight
Nationalism: One of the effective ways in which the modern man escapes life's ethical problems. — Reinhold Niebuhr
The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government. — Tacitus
Ethical Image Quotes
You can't have a million dollar dream with a minimum wage work ethic.
If you can focus the energy into something valuable, put that into work ethic. — Kanye West
The first qualification for success in my view is a strong work ethic. — Henry Ford II
Contemporary literature in the West has shown some signs of ethical change. — Lafcadio Hearn
Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.
Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith. — Alexis de Tocqueville
In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics.
Good Ethics Quotes
Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man. — Arthur Schopenhauer
And the next morning at whatever time he’d decided, he’d awaken to find me standing outside his door. No matter what had happened the night before – good game, bad game, soreness, fatigue – he was up working out every morning while most of the other guys slept. — Tim Grover
In walking through the world there is a choice for a man to make. He can choose the fair and open path, the path which sound ethics, sound democracy, and the common law prescribe, or choose the secret way by which he can get the better of his fellow man. — Ida Tarbell
Dreams do come true, but not without the help of others, a good education, a strong work ethic, and the courage to lean in. — Ursula Burns
The Islamic ethic is that if God has given you the capacity or good fortune to be a privileged individual in society, you have a moral responsibility to society. — Aga Khan IV
What I need to do is have a great positive attitude and a great work ethic. Those two things validate me. Yes, it's important that I have good numbers, and I'm well-respected as a player. But I think it's more important that I'm respected as a man. — David Robinson
The business of business should not be about money. It should be about responsibility. It should be about public good, not private greed — Anita Roddick
Courtesy, modesty, good manners, conformity to definite ethical standards are universal, but what constitutes courtesy, modesty, good manners, and definite ethical standards is not universal. It is instructive to know that standards differ in the most unexpected ways. — Franz Boas
Never lie unless you have to, and if you don’t have a dang good lie, stick to the truth. — American Proverbs
Inspirational Ethics Quotes
Don't spend your precious time asking "Why isn't the world a better place?" It will only be time wasted. The question to ask is "How can I make it better?" To that there is an answer. — Leo Buscaglia
Economics, as it has emerged, can be made more productive by paying greater and more explicit attention to the ethical considerations that shape human behaviour and judgment. — Amartya Sen
Civilizations should be measured by the degree of diversity attained and the degree of unity retained. — W. H. Auden
Talent is never enough. With few exceptions the best players are the hardest workers. — Magic Johnson
I think 'vegan' is a beautiful word. It is more than just a description for our diet. I see it as a visible template for an ethical, healthy, responsible, and rational life. Because it describes our character, it says we do not take the life of another living being to satisfy our wants. — Philip Wollen
The minute you get away from fundamentals – whether its proper technique, work ethic or mental preparation – the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever you’re doing. — Michael Jordan
Probably no greater honor can come to any man than the respect of his colleagues. — Cary Grant
Aspire to decency. Practice civility toward one another. Admire and emulate ethical behavior wherever you find it. Apply a rigid standard of morality to your lives; and if, periodically, you fail as you surely will adjust your lives, not the standards. — Ted Koppel
Nursing encompasses an art, a humanistic orientation, a feeling for the value of the individual, and an intuitive sense of ethics, and of the appropriateness of action taken. — Myrtle Aydelotte
The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it. — Robert H. Schuller
Being Ethical Quotes
Apart from values and ethics which I have tried to live by, the legacy I would like to leave behind is a very simple one - that I have always stood up for what I consider to be the right thing, and I have tried to be as fair and equitable as I could be. — Ratan Tata
My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. To tell the truth, there's hardly a difference. — Harry S. Truman
We live in a country that talks about being the home of the brave and the land of the free, and we have the highest incarceration rate in the world. — Bryan Stevenson
American traditions and the American ethic require us to be truthful, but the most important reason is that truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. It is as simple as that. — Edward R. Murrow
I heard Russell Simmons say that, 'people have million dollar dreams with a minimum wage work ethic.' Basically, everybody wanna be rich but don't nobody wanna work for it. — Yo Gotti
The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings. — Albert Schweitzer
The right to be able to speak openly and confidentially to another is, at times, codified legally if not ethically. — Gad Saad
Personally, I don't think it is acceptable to manipulate the human germline for the purpose of changing some genetic traits that will be transmitted over generations. — Emmanuelle Charpentier
I say that I've never been late with a manuscript, but I don't mean to be arrogant; it's that I simply want to get it done as soon as possible so I can be set free. — Akira Toriyama
Ethical Values Quotes
Solidarity is based on the principle that we are willing to put ourselves at risk to protect each other. — Starhawk
Where no guiding ideals are left to point the way, the scale of values disappears and with it the meaning of our deeds and sufferings, and at the end can lie only negation and despair. Religion is therefore the foundation of ethics, and ethics the presupposition of life. — Werner Heisenberg
Solidarity is not an act of charity, but mutual aid between forces fighting for the same objective. — Samora Machel
When a hunter is in a tree stand with high moral values and with the proper hunting ethics and richer for the experience, that hunter is 20 feet closer to God. — Fred Bear
For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong. — H. L. Mencken
The advantages of having decisions made by groups are often lost because of powerful psychological pressures that arise when the members work closely together, share the same set of values and, above all, face a crisis situation that puts everyone under intense stress — Irving Janis
For we have built into all of us, old blueprints of expectation and response, old structures of oppression and these must be altered at the same time that we alter the living condition which are the result of those structures. For the master's tool will never dismantle the master's house. — Audre Lorde
In terms of instilling the values of mental toughness and work ethic, discipline is the gift that keeps on giving. — William Baldwin
There is nothing wrong with being well off as long as money has a social and ethical value and is not the object of one's own greed. — Aga Khan IV
Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of a good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles. — Pierre de Coubertin
Ethical Standards Quotes
It is not people who break ethical standards who are regarded as aliens. It is people like me who are isolated. — Grigori Perelman
There is no such thing as business ethics. There is only one kind -- you have to adhere to the highest standards. — Marvin Bower
You cannot choose your battlefield,
The Gods do that for you;
But you can plant a standard
Where a standard never flew. — Nathalia Crane
There are no "standards of Right". Ethics is balderdash. Each Star must go on its own orbit. To hell with "moral principle"; there is no such thing. — Aleister Crowley
One of the most depressing features of the ethical side of the matter is that instead of such methods arousing contempt they are more or less openly admired. And this is logical. Canonise 'business success,' and men who made a success like that of the Standard Oil Trust become national heroes! — Ida Tarbell
But when we get enough people who don't care, and who don't accept personal responsibility for high ethical standards, our organization gets the "M" disease. Mediocrity. Anybody in the place can be a carrier. By the same token, every individual can carry the cure: the ethics of excellence. — Price Pritchett
Man cannot pretend to be higher in ethics, spirituality, advancement, or civilization than other creatures and at the same time live by lower standards than the vulture or hyena. — H. Jay Dinshah
I ask that all Americans demonstrate in their personal and public lives... the high ethical standards that are essential to good character and to the continued success of our Nation. — William J. Clinton
A people and their religion must be judged by social standards based on social ethics. No other standard would have any meaning if religion is held to be necessary good for the well-being of the people. — B. R. Babasaheb Ambedkar
Excellence calls for character . . . integrity . . . fairness . . . honesty . . . a determination to do what's right. High ethical standards, across the board. — Price Pritchett
Ethical Behavior Quotes
If ethics are poor at the top, that behavior is copied down through the organization. — Robert Noyce
Where there is not community, trust, respect, ethical behavior are difficult for the young to learn and for the old to maintain. — Robert K. Greenleaf
It is an open question whether any behavior based on fear of eternal punishment can be regarded as ethical or should be regarded as merely cowardly. — Margaret Mead
But you cannot have harmony without a commitment to ethical behavior. It's the fence that keeps out the goats that will eat all the young shoots in your garden. — Jon Kabat-Zinn
Don't make misrepresentations to anyone you deal with. If you believe the other person may have misunderstood you, correct any misunderstanding you find exists. Honesty is integral to ethical behavior, and trustworthiness is essential for good, lasting relationships. — Buck Rodgers
Ethical and responsible behavior needs to become the cornerstone of corporate behavior — Manmohan Singh
Poetry is an ethic. By ethic I mean a secret code of behavior, a discipline constructed and conducted according to the capabilities of a man who rejects the falsifications of the categorical imperative. — Jean Cocteau
A very Faustian choice is upon us: whether to accept our corrosive and risky behavior as the unavoidable price of population and economic growth, or to take stock of ourselves and search for a new environmental ethic. — E. O. Wilson
Mass communication communicates massively: its language lacks precise articulation and avoids demanding terms; it argues for the kind of behavior in life which will make a "good program": ethic equals showbiz. — Frederic Raphael
Dangerous consequences will follow when politicians and rulers forget moral principles. Whether we believe in God or karma, ethics is the foundation of every religion. — Dalai Lama
Never let us confuse what is legal with what is right. Everything Hitler did in Nazi Germany was legal, but it was not right. — Marian Wright Edelman
If you look to lead, invest at least 40% of your time managing yourself - your ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 30% managing those with authority over you, and 15% managing your peers. — Dee Hock
This is because the outcomes of life are not governed by passion, they are governed by principle. — Brianna Wiest
Genuine tragedy is a case not of right against wrong but of right against right - two equally justified ethical principles embodied in people of unchangeable will. — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Secular humanism is avowedly non-religious. It is a eupraxsophy (good practical wisdom), which draws its basic principles and ethical values from science, ethics, and philosophy. — Paul Kurtz
And so we shall have to do more than register and more than vote; we shall have to create leaders who embody virtues we can respect, who have moral and ethical principles we can applaud with enthusiasm. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
The principle that the end justifies the means is in individualist ethics regarded as the denial of all morals. In collectivist ethics it becomes necessarily the supreme rule. — Friedrich August von Hayek
The first principle of ethical power is Purpose. By purpose, I don't mean your objective or intention-something toward which you are always striving. Purpose is something bigger. It is the picture you have of yourself-the kind of person you want to be or the kind of life you want to lead. — Stephen Covey
Ethical Conduct Quotes
I believe that the horrifying deterioration in the ethical conduct of people today stems from the mechanization and dehumanization of our lives. A disastrous by-product of the development of the scientific and technical mentality. We are guilty. Man grows cold faster than the planet he inhabits. — Albert Einstein
Little boldness is needed to assail the opinions and practices of notoriously wicked men; but to rebuke great and good men for their conduct, and to impeach their discernment, is the highest effort of moral courage. — William Lloyd Garrison
The Gospel is not a mere message of deliverance, but a canon of conduct; it is not a theology to be accepted, but it is ethics to be lived. It is not to be believed only, but it is to be taken into life as a guide. — Alexander Maclaren
We have been quick to assume rights to use water but slow to recognize obligations to preserve and protect it... In short, we need a water ethic-a guide to right conduct in the face of complex decisions about natural systems we do not and cannot fully understand. — Sandra Postel
By ethical conduct toward all creatures, we enter into a spiritual relationship with the universe. — Albert Schweitzer
Ethical conduct is something that becomes inherent in an organization over a long period of time. — Lee R. Raymond
A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct — Aldo Leopold
I have been committed to carrying out my duties... in accordance with both the letter and spirit of all applicable rules of ethics and canons of conduct. — Samuel Alito
I had taken a course in Ethics. I read a thick textbook, heard the class discussions and came out of it saying I hadn't learned a thing I didn't know before about morals and what is right or wrong in human conduct. — Carl Sandburg
I do think that there is a very unclear level of conduct in the Trump administration. That's one reason you're seeing this among so many different secretaries. Again, Trump himself has been bending ethics rules left and right. — Ezra Klein
Ethical Questions Quotes
We live in a time when complex ethical questions are easily subordinated to the demands of efficiency, profit maximization, and maintenance or furthering of political power. — Randal Marlin
What is it that should trace the insuperable line? ...The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? — Jeremy Bentham
Everywhere, the ethical predicament of our time imposes itself with an urgency which suggests that even the question Have we anything to eat? will be answered not in material but in ethical terms. — Hugo Ball
The private sector can go forward, if it must, with destruction of embryos for questionable and ethically challenged science. But spend the people's money on proven blood cord, bone marrow, germ cell, and adult cell research. — Roger Wicker
A civilized society must count animals as worthy of moral consideration and ethical treatment. The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? — Jeremy Bentham
Many business leaders are asking fundamental questions about what business they're in, why they are doing it and how it can be used as a means of healing human and natural communities. — Amory Lovins
I find this in all these places I've been travelling - from India to China, to Japan and Europe and to Brazil - there is a frustration with the terms of public discourse, with a kind of absence of discussion of questions of justice and ethics and of values. — Michael Sandel
As a leader, these attributes - confidence, perseverance, work ethic and good sense - are all things I look for in people. I also try to lead by example and create an environment where good questions and good ideas can come from anyone. — Heather Bresch
The question is, why are politicians so eager to be president? What is it about the job that makes it worth revealing, on national television, that you have the ethical standards of a slime-coated piece of industrial waste? — Dave Barry
The question is where are business ethics and morality if one of the parties wants to dishonor a binding contract, just because in retrospect it realizes it could perhaps have got a better price! — Anil Ambani
Ethical Issues Quotes
The most important environmental issue is one that is rarely mentioned, and that is the lack of a conservation ethic in our culture. — Gaylord Nelson
Physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia have been profound ethical issues confronting doctors since the birth of Western medicine, more than 2,000 years ago. — Ezekiel Emanuel
There’s policy issues like facial recognition and how to treat images of people that we need to address and work through. We need to figure out, like, where the sort of danger zones are — where the red lines are — and then clarify that over time. — Greg Brockman
Wise men put their trust in ideas and not in circumstances. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
I don't think it's an ethical or moral issue, or even that people are stupid, but I do feel like as a culture things are out of balance, perverted, and inverted. Things that are ridiculous are worshipped, and things that are important are ridiculed. I think that's something worth thinking about. — Ian MacKaye
I was aware of what animals go through because I had driven animals to slaughter and I'd killed animals. And I was aware that there were certain ethical issues, but they weren't preying on my mind very heavily. — Neal Barnard
Today, unfortunately, the right to vote seems to have become a partisan issue. Democrats seek to guarantee and expand voting rights. Republicans try to undermine and suppress voting rights. — Donna Brazile
There's a great deal of difference between thinking reflectively about moral issues and achieving higher standards of ethical behavior. — Derek Bok
Live by the creed that a strong work ethic, playing by the rules, and doing things the right way will bring about opportunities for success and, ultimately, happiness. — Nick Saban
Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. — Immanuel Kant
No amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin. — Aneurin Bevan
Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are. — Saint Augustine
The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery, not over nature but of ourselves. — Rachel Carson
The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. — Jeremy Bentham
The meaning of life is pretty clear: Living things strive to pass their genes into the future. The claim that we would not have morals or ethics without religion is extraordinary. Animals in nature seem to behave in moral ways without organized religion. — Bill Nye
My selective memory of what drinking was like told me that standing at the bar in a pub, on a summer's evening with a long, tall glass of lager and lime was heaven, and I chose not to remember the nights on which I had sat with a bottle of vodka, a gram of coke and a shotgun, contemplating suicide. — Eric Clapton
Subversive, ethical, ecological, political, humorous ... this is how I see my duty as a designer. — Philippe Starck
What is the difference between unethical and ethical advertising? Unethical advertising uses falsehoods to deceive the public; ethical advertising uses truth to deceive the public. — Vilhjalmur Stefansson
Legal Ethics Quotes
Considering the absence of legal coercion, the surprising thing is that men have for so long, and, on the whole, so reliably, adhered to what we might call the breadwinner ethic. — Barbara Ehrenreich
A corporation like Enron is a person with a legal identity and no ethical accountability. — Doug Berry
I know how easy it is for one to stay well within moral, ethical, and legal bounds through the skillful use of words - and to thereby spin, sidestep, circumvent, or bend a truth completely out of shape. To that extent, we are all liars on numerous occasions. — Sidney Poitier
When anarchy is declared, the first thing we do, let's kill all the anarchists. — Craig Reucassel
Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is that the Ten Commandments are a historical document that contains moral, ethical, and legal truisms that any person of any religion or even an atheist can recognize and appreciate. — Cliff Stearns
My biggest problem with modernity may lie in the growing separation of the ethical and the legal — Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Within legal enforcement of "morality," there is no sense of how to morally, ethically, or fairly help people live safer lives. It's all about banishment or punishment or forced destitution - all of which creates more desperation, and more social risk-taking by people in moments of crisis. — Terre Thaemlitz
Anything which causes trouble has special merit in their eyes. — Desiderius Erasmus
I do not want you ever to initiate any action for any refunds of taxes without first consulting me and presenting the matter fully to me so that I may judge whether it is an honorable and ethical action to take, not simply legally, but according to my own personal standards. — Ernest Hemingway
I see ethical considerations as having a certain priority in our interactions - passing judgment on our political and legal processes. — John Kleinig
Unethical Quotes
Economic growth without investment in human development is unsustainable - and unethical. — Amartya Sen
Rogue internet pharmacies continue to pose a serious threat to the health and safety of Americans. Simply put, a few unethical physicians and pharmacists have become drug suppliers to a nation. — Dianne Feinstein
While that amendment failed, human cloning continues to advance and the breakthrough in this unethical and morally questionable science is around the corner. — Mike Pence
Goals may cause systematic problems for organizations due to narrowed focus, unethical behavior, increased risk taking, decreased cooperation, and decreased intrinsic motivation. Use care when applying goals in your organization. — Daniel H. Pink
Some people—and I am one of them—hate happy ends. We feel cheated. Harm is the norm. Doom should not jam. The avalanche stopping in its tracks a few feet above the cowering village behaves not only unnaturally but unethically. — Vladimir Nabokov
There is a point at which the law becomes immoral and unethical. That point is reached when it becomes a cloak for the cowardice that dares not stand up against blatant violations of justice. — Kurt Huber
I consider your conduct unethical and lousy. — Peter Arno
In the year since we brought things into the open with a clean breath of fresh air at City Hall, we have learned about corrupt spending practices and unethical conflicts of interest that waste your money... and keep Dallas from being the great city of our dreams. — Laura Miller
I think "immoral" is probably the wrong word to use...I prefer the word "unethical." — Ivan Boesky
Unethical conduct is actually the conduct of destruction and fear; lies are told because one is afraid of the consequences should one tell the truth; thus, the liar is inevitably a coward, the coward is inevitably a liar. — L. Ron Hubbard
We live in a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants, in a world that has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. We have solved the mystery of the atom and forgotten the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about dying than we know about living. — Omar N. Bradley
Games are a trigger for adults to again become primitive, primal, as a way of thinking and remembering. An adult is a child who has more ethics and morals, that's all. I am not creating a game. I am in the game. The game is not for children, it is for me. It is for an adult who still has a character of a child. — Shigeru Miyamoto
I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we've got to do it right. We've got to give those animals a decent life, and we've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect. — Temple Grandin
In Conclusion
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