There is still much debate about whether torture has been effective in eliciting information – the assumption being, apparently, that if it is effective, then it may be justified.

Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.

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.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.

Violence is both unavoidable and unjustifiable.

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

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

Arguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing.

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

We need to have business leaders who live by deep, strong principles.

No cause justifies the deaths of innocent people.

We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.

Where do the evils like corruption arise from? It comes from the never-ending greed. The fight for corruption-free ethical society will have to be fought against this greed and replace it with ‚what can I give‘ spirit.

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

The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul.

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

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.

When I take action, I’m not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It’s going to be decisive.

To do a great right do a little wrong.

Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office.

I would never do a commercial if I thought it was offensive to anyone.

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

Who shall decide when doctors disagree, And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

Morality is of the highest importance – but for us, not for God.

Rather leave the crime of the guilty unpunished than condemn the innocent.

In the late Fifties and early Sixties, opposition to state terror and aggression and torture and so on was zero. That was a horrible time: the massive Kennedy terror operation against Cuba, the first attacks on Vietnam in 1962, the imposition of national security states in South America.

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

Effective action is always unjust.

For a war to be just three conditions are necessary – public authority, just cause, right motive.

The ideas I stand for are not mine. I borrowed them from Socrates. I swiped them from Chesterfield. I stole them from Jesus. And I put them in a book. If you don’t like their rules, whose would you use?

The infinite faith I have in people’s ability to understand anything that makes sense has always been justified, finally, by their behavior.

May be is very well, but Must is the master. It is my duty to show justice without recompense.

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

I can tell you this: If I’m ever in a position to call the shots, I’m not going to rush to send somebody else’s kids into a war.

Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one’s opponent.

For diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible – and no one can now doubt the word of America.

You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it.

He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it.

There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good.

To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

I am sometimes sad when I hear the personal stories of Tibetan refugees who have been tortured or beaten. Some irritation, some anger comes. But it never lasts long. I always try to think at a deeper level, to find ways to console.

It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry.

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.

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

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

The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency.

Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?

All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?

The pen is mightier than the sword if the sword is very short, and the pen is very sharp.

The word ‚good‘ has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.

You can only have one aim per debate.

Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.

Lawless are they that make their wills their law.

To say that you can kill in the name of God is blasphemy.

Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

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

I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of money for money’s sake.

Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.