Freeman Dyson Quotes

A good cause can become bad if we fight for it with means that are indiscriminately murderous. A bad cause can become good if enough people fight for it in a spirit of comradeship and self-sacrifice. In the end it is how you fight, as much as why you fight, that makes your cause good or bad.

The just man walks in his integrity

It is difficult for me to regard anyone who obeys no moral principle in his conduct to be a religious man.

Without Virtue there can be no liberty

It is the property of a great and good mind to covet, not the fruit of good deeds, but good deeds themselves, and to seek for a good man even after having met with bad men.

Who's the best person you know. Of all the people you know personally, is there anyone who has a sense of right and wrong and lives by it? This was a sticky question because it would have to be Ranger ...but I suspected he occasionally killed people. Only bad people, of course, but still...

Possessed of courage but devoid of morality, a superior man will make trouble while a small man will be a brigand.

ATHENA: You wish to be called righteous rather than act right. [...] I say, wrong must not win by technicalities.

Nothing of character is really permanent but virtue and personal worth.

And that whole do-able/undo-able thing? Yeah. Need I point out that neither Ruth nor I have ever "done" anybody in our lives?

...virtue is not merely a state in conformity with the right principle, but one that implies the right principle; and the right principle in moral conduct is prudence.

Integrity is the light that shines from a disciplined conscience.

Great men's honor ought always to be measured by the methods they made use of in attaining it.

A man should be upright, not be kept upright.

There's not much out there that people are fighting for that leaves them with nothing but honor.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

My future is righteousness.

Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our deeds.

The ends do not justify the means. The means are the ends.

The means you use must be as pure as the ends you seek.

I myself have constantly refused to print anything that might countenance vice or promote immorality, though … I might have gotten much money.

Act with honor, and Honor will aid you

The only word for goodness is goodness, and it is not enough.

Our probity is not less at the mercy of fortune than our property.

You don't luck into integrity. You work at it.