Quotes about Ethics

But take heed to pay them willingly and promptly what money they should have. With those whom one despises, one on no account should have money differences, lest it might perhaps be said that it was to get out of paying them one avoided them. No, pay them double, in order that thy disagreement with them may be thoroughly clear: that what concerns them does not concern thee at all, namely, money; and on the contrary, that what does not concern them concerns thee infinitely, namely, Christianity.

Kierkegaard says: "An ethic which ignores sin is an absolutely idle science.

Neither can one who wills the Good do so out of fear of punishment. In essence, this is the same thing as willing the Good for the sake of a reward.

From this, however, it does not follow that the ethical is to be abolished, but it acquires an entirely different expression, the paradoxical expression — that, for example, love to God may cause the knight of faith to give his love to his neighbor the opposite expression to that which, ethically speaking, is required by duty. If

the fact that he offered his best. What they leave out of Abraham's history is dread; for to money I have no ethical obligation, but to the son the father has the highest and most sacred obligation. Dread, however, is a perilous thing for effeminate natures, hence they forget it, and in spite of that they want to talk about Abraham.

To sin is human, to lay snares is diabolical.

As the excellence of steel is strength, and the excellence of art is beauty, so the excellence of mankind is moral character.

None of us can hope to get anywhere without character, moral courage and the spiritual strength to accept responsibility.

We all have to recognise - no matter how great our strength - that we must deny ourselves the licence to do always as we please.

Integrity gains strength by use.

All laws and philosophy merely tell us what should be done, but they do not provide the strength to do it.

If a strong man has not in him the lift toward lofty things, his strength makes him only a curse to himself and his neighbor.