I do not recognize the right of the public to break in the front door of a man’s private life in order to satisfy the gaze of the curious… I do not think it right to dissect living men even for the advancement of science. So far as I am concerned, I prefer a post mortem examination to vivisection without anaesthetics.

Actually, you have to be a little bit in love with your leading man and vice versa. If you’re going to portray love, you have to feel it. You can’t do it any other way. But you don’t carry it beyond the set.

Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.

Sin, also for those who don’t have faith, exists when one goes against one’s conscience. To listen to and obey it means, in fact, to decide in face of what is perceived as good or evil. And on this decision pivots the goodness or malice of our action.

If I love you, what business is it of yours?

I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously.

Yeah, I like to keep myself interested – I’ll kind of throw myself into some area that I don’t completely know or understand, that I’m not adept at, so I’m forced to swim in order to stay afloat. There’s a good feeling that comes from that.

The humanists‘ replacement for religion: work really hard and somehow you’ll either save yourself or you’ll be immortal. Of course, that’s a total joke, and our progress is nothing. There may be progress in technology but there’s no ethical progress whatsoever.

No public man can be just a little crooked.

I think most defense attorneys know, to some extent, their clients are guilty.

A leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.

I have definitely been curious and involved in the process; even as a young actor. I was always looking at where the camera was, what story it was telling. And as my experience grew, I wanted to know even more.

What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.

When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.

Relationships based on obligation lack dignity.

There is a need for aloneness, which I don’t think most people realise for an actor. It’s almost having certain kinds of secrets for yourself that you’ll let the whole world in on only for a moment, when you’re acting. But everybody is always tugging at you. They’d all like sort of a chunk of you.

If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.

In order for me to be successful… In order to be a great artist – musician, actor, painter, whatever – you must be able to be private in public at all times. That is what we do.

The time has come for all evangelists to practice full financial disclosure. The world is watching how we walk and how we talk. We must have the highest standards of morality, ethics and integrity if we are to continue to have influence.

Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that ‚Oryx and Crake‘ is anti-science. Science is a way of knowing, and a tool. Like all ways of knowing and tools, it can be turned to bad uses. And it can be bought and sold, and it often is. But it is not in itself bad. Like electricity, it’s neutral.

No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods.

The quality of moral behavior varies in inverse ratio to the number of human beings involved.

Let me give you a definition of ethics: It is good to maintain and further life it is bad to damage and destroy life.

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.

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

It is perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and I think it’s perfectly possible to live a life peppered with ill-doing and believe in God.

Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.

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

The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right.

Don’t create more enemies than you take out by some immoral act.

I’m home a lot. Because I live in Ireland, we can live under the celebrity radar. I might go missing for a whole year.

I’ve never had that much trouble with the paparazzi, but I don’t run the same circles that a lot of these people that do get hounded by the paparazzi.

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

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice… that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.

I need privacy. I would think that because what I do makes a lot of people happy that I might deserve a little bit of respect in return. Instead, the papers try to drag me off my pedestal.

Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know because we don’t want to know.

Morality is contraband in war.

Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.

Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.

What is moral is what you feel good after, and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.

Honor and shame from no condition rise. Act well your part: there all the honor lies.

Good men must not obey the laws too well.

You can use your real identity, or you can use phone numbers for something like WhatsApp, and pseudonyms for something like Instagram. But in any of those you’re not just sharing and consuming content, you are also building relationships with people and building an understanding of people.

If I have the chance to say something, I will say it – but that doesn’t obligate me to always say something, or to shed light on every problem, as if I were a lawmaker.

If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please.

Give yourself more opportunities for privacy, when you are not bombarded with duties and obligations. Privacy is not a rejection of those you love; it is your deserved respite for recharging your batteries.

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.

To cut short the question of the law of retaliation, we must note that even in its primitive form it can operate only between two individuals of whom one is absolutely innocent, and the other absolutely guilty. The victim, to be sure, is innocent. But can the society that is supposed to represent the victim lay claim to innocence?

I respect Chris Brown. I’d like to call myself a friend – I don’t know if I’m allowed to do that.

I just usually go with my own taste. If I like something, and it happens to be against the law, well, then I might have a problem.

Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.

He who steals a little steals with the same wish as he who steals much, but with less power.

To live outside the law, you must be honest.

Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.

I don’t believe in God but I’m very interested in her.

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

Only a man’s character is the real criterion of worth.

Note, besides, that it is no more immoral to directly rob citizens than to slip indirect taxes into the price of goods that they cannot do without.

Cruelty is, perhaps, the worst kid of sin. Intellectual cruelty is certainly the worst kind of cruelty.

In my view, the only thing worse than a rock star is a rock star with a conscience.