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Men rarely (if ever) managed to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.
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No source entered for Contribution #4333
Once we assuage our conscience by calling something a "necessary evil", it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil.
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No source entered for Contribution #4326
The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.
My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference.
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Contribution #4241
The Hope of Tomorrow - Unless we become the living embodiment of love and light, we shall have no justification in saying that God is love and light. Unless we use the freedom we have without abusing it, we shall have no justification in saying that man is master of his own soul, the creator of his own destiny, and the arbiter of his own fate. But if we can bind ourselves together reverently, in love and compassion, in mutual tolerance and understanding, under the cohesive powers of the universal law of good and the beneficence of a divine and universal presence, then shall we be able to use the liberty without license, to diffuse unity with uniformity, and to lead the world down the pathway of a new enlightenment.
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Source type: Periodical
Science of Mind Magazine
Hearts Full of Fire
http://
Contribution #4240
All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
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No source entered for Contribution #4185
If your going to be two-faced at least make one of them pretty.
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No source entered for Contribution #4072
The death of dogma is the birth of morality.
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Source type: Website
Wordsmith
Immanuel Kant, philosopher (1724-1804)
"
A.Word.A.Day"
http://wordsmith.org/
Viewed on May 14, 2010
Contribution #4040
The only way human beings can win a war is to prevent it.
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Source type: Website
Wordsmith
George Marshall, US Army Chief, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Nobel laureate (1880-1959)
"
A.Word.A.Day"
Viewed on May 11, 2010
Contribution #4027
If you simply try to "do unto other as you would like them to do unto you" then you could wind up doing things to others they might not enjoy as much as you do. . . . An even more "finely tuned" rule might be what some call "The Platinum Rule," namely, "Do Unto Others as They Would Have You Do Unto Them." In other words, take time to learn about your neighbor's tastes, their mood, their nature, and their temperment, before you start "doing" things "unto them." Treat others the way they want to be treated.
When others asked the truth of me, I was convinced it was not the truth they wanted, but an illusion they could bear to live with.
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Source type: Website
Wordsmith
Anais Nin, writer (1903-1977)
"
A.Word.A.Day"
http://wordsmith.org/
Viewed on April 26, 2010
Contribution #3941
A bifurcation of loyalties that requires religious to put canon law above civil law and moral law puts us in a situation where the keepers of religion may themselves become one of the greatest dangers to the credibility -- and the morality -- of the church itself.
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Source type: Periodical
National Catholic Reporter
Divided Loyalties: An Incredible Situation
http://
Contribution #3903
Blind obedience is itself an abuse of human morality. It is a misuse of the human soul in the name of religious commitment. It is a sin against individual conscience. It makes moral children of the adults from whom moral agency is required. It makes a vow, which is meant to require religious figures to listen always to the law of God, beholden first to the laws of very human organizations in the person of very human authorities. It is a law that isn't even working in the military and can never substitute for personal morality.
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Source type: Periodical
The National Catholic Reporter
Divided Loyalties: An Incredible Situation
http://
Contribution #3902
There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.
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No source entered for Contribution #3821
Morality is doing right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.
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No source entered for Contribution #3658
New occasions teach new duties, Time makes ancient good uncouth.
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No source entered for Contribution #3595
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 one's conscience tells one that it is right.
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No source entered for Contribution #3408
Organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.
If your morals make you dreary, depend on it they are wrong.
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No source entered for Contribution #3231
Why does everyone take for granted that we don't learn to grow arms, but rather, are designed to grow arms? Similarly, we should conclude that in the case of the development of moral systems; there's a biological endowment which in effect requires us to develop a system of moral judgment and a theory of justice, if you like, that in fact has detailed applicability over an enormous range.
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No source entered for Contribution #3159
Of all the differences between man and the lower animals, the moral sense or conscience is by far the most important . . . [I]t is summed up in that short but imperious word ought, so full of high significance. It is the most noble of all the attributes of man, leading him without a moment's hesitation to risk his life for that of a fellow-creature; or after due deliberation, impelled simply by the deep feeling of right or duty, to sacrifice it in some great cause.
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No source entered for Contribution #3160
Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of right and wrong merely relative to this. This sense is as much a part of his nature, as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling; it is the true foundation of morality . . . The moral sense, or conscience , is as much a part of man as his leg or arm. It is given to all human beings in a stronger or weaker degree, as force of members is given to them in a greater or lesser degree. It may be strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb of the body.
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Source type: Book
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson
by J. P. Boyd
Page ME 6:257, Paper 12:15. Letter to Peter Carr, Aug 10
Published in 1787/1955
http://cited in Moral Minds, by Marc Hauser
Contribution #3161
I fully subscribe to the judgement of those writers who maintain that of all the differences between man and the lower animal, the moral sense of conscience is by far the most important....It is the most noble of all the attributes of man.
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No source entered for Contribution #3046
Ultimately a highly complex sentiment, having its first origin in the social instincts, largely guided by the approbation of our fellow-men, ruled by reason, self-interest, and in later times by deep religious feelings, confirmed by instruction and habit, all combined, constitute our moral sense or conscience.
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Source type: Book
The Descent of Man
Page Volume 1, pages 165-166
Published in 1871
http://
Contribution #3041
Every age has its massive moral blind spots. We might not see them, but our children will.
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No source entered for Contribution #2860
An ethical act is one which does not harm others' experience or expectation of happiness.
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Source type: Book
Ethics for the New Millenium
Page 49
Published by Riverhead Books
, New York
, 2001
http://
Contribution #2791
Ethics: The indispensable interface between my desire to be happy and yours.
(Because) the notion of absolute truth is difficult to sustain outside the context of religion, ethical conduct is not something we engage in because it is somehow right in itself but because, like ourselves, all others desire to be happy and to avoid suffering. Given that this is a natural disposition, shared by all, it follows that each individual has a right to pursue this goal. Accordingly, I suggest that one of the things which determines whether an act is ethical or not is its effect on others' experience or expectation of happiness.
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Source type: Book
Ethics for the New Millenium
Page 28
Published by Riverhead Books
, New York
, 1999
http://
Contribution #2784
Science provides the underpinning of the ethics behind the enlightenment - unbiased arbitration of differences based on due process and documentation of facts as best can be achieved at the time. Religion remains very important as sets of closed value systems with internally and hierarchially administered rules within that value set. The two address two very different and equally important human needs - for both values - love of the home team - and ethics - love of fair play beyond the scope of the home team.
Civilization can only revive when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind, independent of the prevalent one among the crowds, and in opposition to it -- a tone of mind which will gradually win influence over the collective one, and in the end determine its character. Only an ethical movement can rescue us from barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals.
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No source entered for Contribution #2578
Today we are engaged in a deadly global struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms. If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction.
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No source entered for Contribution #2524
Technological change is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.
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No source entered for Contribution #2458
What is the relationship between spirituality and ethical practice? Since love and compassion and similar qualities all, by definition, presume some level of concern for others' well-being, they presume ethical restraint. We cannot be loving and compassionate unless at the same time we curb our own harmful impulses and desires.
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Source type: Book
Ethics for the New Millenium
Page 26
Published by Riverside books
, New York
, 1999
http://
Contribution #2396
Western liberal humanism is not something that comes naturally to us: like an appreciation of art or poetry, it has to be cultivated. Humanism is itself a religion without God—not all religions, of course, are theistic. Our ethical secular ideal has it's own disciplines of mind and heart and gives people the means of finding faith in the ultimate meaning of human life that were once provided by the more conventional religions.
To have something to say is a question of sleepless nights and worry and endless ratiocination of subject - of endless trying to dig out the essential truth, the essential justice. As a first premise you have to develop a conscience and if on top of that you have talent so much the better. But if you have talent without the conscience, you are just one of many thousands of journalists.
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No source entered for Contribution #1745
In regard to the past, where contemplation is not obscured by desire and the need for action, we see, more clearly than in the lives about us, the value for good and evil, of the aims men have pursued and the means they have adopted. It is good, from time to time, to view the present as already past, and to examine what elements it contains that will add to the world's store of permanent possessions, that will live and give life when we and all our generation have perished.
We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil.
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No source entered for Contribution #1723
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet"; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
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Source type: Sacred Text
Bible
Romans
12: 8-10
http://
Contribution #1652
If we can look upon our work not for self-benefit,
but as a means to benefit society,
we will be practicing appreciation and patience in our daily lives.
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Source type: Book
Heart of a Buddha
Published by Amitabha Publications
, Temple City, CA
, 2003
http://
Contribution #1447
Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil; our great hope lies in developing what is good.
The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world it's own shame.
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No source entered for Contribution #1345
Although the legal and ethical definitions of right are the antithesis of each other, most writers use them as synonyms. They confuse power with goodness, and mistake law for justice.
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Source type: Book
Freedom and Its Fundamentals
http://
Contribution #1135
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.
Our very lives depend on the ethics
of strangers, and most of us are always strangers to other people.
In law a man is guilty when he
violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks
of doing so.
Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.
Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
All religion and all
ethics are summed up in justice.
Always do right. That will gratify some of the people, and astonish the rest.
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No source entered for Contribution #802
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.'
The character ethic, which I believe to be the foundation of success, teaches that there are basic principles of effective living, and that people can only experience true success and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character."
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.
Ethics must begin at the top of an organization. It is a leadership issue and the chief executive must set the example.
The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are. And if our words and our actions come from superficial human relations techniques (the Personality Ethic) rather than from our own inner core (the Character Ethic), others will sense that duplicity. We simply won't be able to create and sustain the foundation necessary for effective interdependence.
Shelving hard decisions is the least ethical course.
A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.
Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life. That is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring, and limiting life are evil.
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Source type: Website
Albert Schweitzer
Viewed on April 10, 2008
Contribution #470
My own view, which does not rely solely on religious faith or even on an original idea, but rather on ordinary common sense, is that establishing binding ethical principles is possible when we take as our starting point the observation that we all desire happiness and wish to avoid suffering.
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Source type: Book
Ethics for the New Millenium
by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Page Ch. 2, p. 28.
Published by Riverhead Books
, New York
, 1999-01-01
http://
Contribution #15
Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics.
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No source entered for Contribution #10
What does ethics look like in a person?
(2 responses)
