Quotes about Ethics
Men of character are the conscience of the society to which they belong.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Man's actions are the picture book of his creeds.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
We want a state of things in which crime will not pay, a state of things which allows every man the largest liberty compatible with the liberty of every other man.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Reason is not the sole basis of moral virtue in man. His social impulses are more deeply rooted than his rational life.
— Reinhold Niebuhr
Man is always worse than most people suspect, but also generally better than most people dream.
— Reinhold Niebuhr
A man cannot have character unless he lives within a fundamental system of morals that creates character.
— Harry S. Truman
A man had better starve at once than lose his innocence in the process of getting his bread.
— Henry David Thoreau
There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man.
— Henry David Thoreau
If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown myself.
— Henry David Thoreau
It behooves every man to see that his influence is on the side of justice, and let the courts make their own characters.
— Henry David Thoreau
What is chastity? How shall a man know if he is chaste? He shall not know it. We have heard of this virtue, but we know not what it is.
— Henry David Thoreau
When a man's conscience and the laws clash, it is his conscience that he must follow.
— Henry David Thoreau