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

I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face. Don’t trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it.

We are the most amazing creatures that this world has ever produced, but we seem to also have this herd mentality; we seem to be the most stupid, also.

One of the great questions of philosophy is, do we innately have morality, or do we get it from celestial dictation? A study of the Ten Commandments is a very good way of getting into and resolving that issue.

Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning.

Blessedness is not the reward of virtue but virtue itself.

It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.

I don’t do any vulgar movements.

Taste is the only morality. Tell me what you like and I’ll tell you what you are.

Henry Kissinger should have the door shut in his face by every decent person and should be shamed, ostracized and excluded.

Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.

Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.

My father used to have an expression. He’d say, ‚Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect. It’s about your place in your community.‘

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.

I don’t think anything about a personal legacy. I mean, those words would never come out of my mouth unless I just repeated them. Those things have never been important to me.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good… Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.

Abortion isn’t a lesser evil, it’s a crime. Taking one life to save another, that’s what the Mafia does. It’s a crime. It’s an absolute evil.

Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable.

We’re all just a bunch of sinners, but we do the best we can.

We learned about dignity and decency – that how hard you work matters more than how much you make… that helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself.

Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous.

I can hardly eat meat because it has to look like something what it was not when it was alive.

Compassion is the basis of morality.

We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.

The ‚morality of compromise‘ sounds contradictory. Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat. Strong men don’t compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values – that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

For I can raise no money by vile means.

Of what use is a philosopher who doesn’t hurt anybody’s feelings?

It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.

It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.

One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.

The first rule of business is: Do other men for they would do you.

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.

Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing.

Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office.

Some people feel affronted when something they thought to be true doesn’t happen. If that’s the case, then your sense of risk is much higher, and that leads to risk aversion. You need to be able to be comfortable in uncertainty.

No legacy is so rich as honesty.

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

Every act you have ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something.

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.

Gold is good in its place; but loving, brave, patriotic men are better than gold.

Wealthy men can’t live in an island that is encircled by poverty. We all breathe the same air. We must give a chance to everyone, at least a basic chance.

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.

I’ve found men are less likely to let petty things annoy them.

The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.

I don’t like freeloaders; I don’t like people who are negative.

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

It’s so hard to know what to do when one wishes earnestly to do right.

I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water.

If you want someone to say, ‚She’s so sweet, and she’s so cute, and, honey, point your foot,‘ that’s not my school. You can go to the YMCA and have a nobody teach your kid if that’s what you want to hear.

But the relationship of morality and power is a very subtle one. Because ultimately power without morality is no longer power.

The computer brings out the worst in some people.

To appreciate the noble is a gain which can never be torn from us.

Ethics and power are separate.

In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.

Is man one of God’s blunders? Or is God one of man’s blunders?

Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.

Say what you will about the ten commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.