Quotes about Ethics

It is my strong conviction that a realist conception of human nature should be made a servant of an ethic of progressive justice and should not be made into a bastion of conservatism, particularly a conservatism which defends unjust privileges.

Power," said Henry Adams, "is poison"; and it is a poison which blinds the eyes of moral insight and lames the will of moral purpose. The

civilization depends upon the vigorous pursuit of the highest values by people who are intelligent enough to know that their values are qualified by their interests and corrupted by their prejudices.

The preservation of a democratic civilization requires the wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness of the dove.

Religion is a good thing for good people and a bad thing for bad people.

It is fair, therefore, to assume that growing rationality is a guarantee of man's growing morality.

It is fair, therefore, to assume that growing rationality is a guarantee of man's growing morality.

Perhaps there is no better illustration of the ethical impotency of the modern church than its failure to deal with the evils and ethical problems of stock manipulation. Millions in property values are created by pure legerdemain. Stock dividends, watered stock and excessive rise in stock values, due to the productivity of the modern machine, are accepted by the church without murmur if only a slight return is made by the beneficiaries through church philanthropies [1927].

Absolutism, in both religious and political realism, is a splendid incentive to heroic action, but a dangerous guide in immediate and concrete situations.

Ultimately evil is done not so much by evil people, but by good people who do not know themselves and who do not probe deeply.

comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable

Self-righteousness is the inevitable fruit of simple moral judgments.