We are justified in enforcing good morals, for they belong to all mankind; but we are not justified in enforcing good manners, for good manners always mean our own manners.

You’re morally tainted if you don’t treat both the accuser and the accused with fairness and with respect, and with due process.

To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage, or of principle.

I know from having had a child, and from having been a child myself, that children will copy you.

An individual’s refusal to carry out the criminal acts of his government sets the stage, in the most effective way possible, for the attempt to demonstrate the criminal nature of these acts.

Only a philosophy of eternity, in the world today, could justify non-violence.

Nowadays, manners are easy and life is hard.

There’s strong data that, within companies, the No. 1 reason for ethical violations is the pressure to meet expectations, sometimes unrealistic expectations.

The desire to annoy no one, to harm no one, can equally well be the sign of a just as of an anxious disposition.

It makes a great deal of difference whether one wills not to sin or has not the knowledge to sin.

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

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

You must reward the kind of behavior that you want.

Thought is the parent of the deed.

Should surveillance be usable for petty crimes like jaywalking or minor drug possession? Or is there a higher threshold for certain information? Those aren’t easy questions.

I’m quite a chauvinistic person.

We have got to change our ethics and our financial system and our whole way of understanding the world. It has to be a world in which people live rather than die; a sustainable world. It could be great.

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all – the apathy of human beings.

Forgiveness is not a feeling – it’s a decision we make because we want to do what’s right before God. It’s a quality decision that won’t be easy and it may take time to get through the process, depending on the severity of the offense.

A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

I’m skeptical of any mission that has advertisers at its centerpiece.

When the President does it, that means that it’s not illegal.

If there is no God, everything is permitted.

First and foremost, we need to be the adults we want our children to be. We should watch our own gossiping and anger. We should model the kindness we want to see.

Women must pay for everything. They do get more glory than men for comparable feats, but, they also get more notoriety when they crash.

If he invited you out, he’s got to pay.

If you’re put on a pedestal, you’re supposed to behave yourself like a pedestal type of person. Pedestals actually have a limited circumference. Not much room to move around.

Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.

It is better to take what does not belong to you than to let it lie around neglected.

Compassion is the basis of morality.

Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.

Is science of any value? I think a power to do something is of value. Whether the result is a good thing or a bad thing depends on how it is used, but the power is a value.

Younger scientists are extremely sensitive to the moral implications of all they do.

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.

The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority have always done just the opposite.

So act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.

The more things are forbidden, the more popular they become.

The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.

Yes, there is a terrible moral in ‚Dorian Gray‘ – a moral which the prurient will not be able to find in it, but it will be revealed to all whose minds are healthy. Is this an artistic error? I fear it is. It is the only error in the book.

Reverence for life affords me my fundamental principle of morality.

I am certain no one sets out to be cruel, but our treatment of the elderly ill seems to have no philosophy to it. As a society, we should establish whether we have a policy of life at any cost.

One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him.

Crime when it succeeds is called virtue.

In the game of cricket, a hero is a person who respects the game and does not corrupt the game. The one who doesn’t or corrupts the game, they are the villain. They should be punished, and they have been punished in the past.

Do right. Do your best. Treat others as you want to be treated.

One may no more live in the world without picking up the moral prejudices of the world than one will be able to go to hell without perspiring.

Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power.

For how many things, which for our own sake we should never do, do we perform for the sake of our friends.

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?

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

Justice… is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed.

It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple: one must be a woman manly, or a man womanly.

I should like to know what is the proper function of women, if it is not to make reasons for husbands to stay at home, and still stronger reasons for bachelors to go out.

The purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced – the just demands of peace and security will be met – or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.

He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.

Sin is geographical.

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

It is better to die than to preserve this life by incurring disgrace. The loss of life causes but a moment’s grief, but disgrace brings grief every day of one’s life.

I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.

Our judgments when we are pleased and friendly are not the same as when we are pained and hostile.

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